Grocery Chain’s Jet Crashes; All 9 Aboard Killed
A corporate jet carrying grocery executives on a Christmas tour of their stores slammed into a mountain Wednesday, killing the seven passengers and two crew members on board, authorities said.
The twin-engine Beechcraft, owned by Birmingham, Ala.-based Bruno’s Inc., was bound for Huntsville, Ala. It crashed on Lavendar Mountain on the Berry College campus northwest of Rome, a town of 30,000 people 80 miles north of Atlanta. There were no survivors.
The plane took off from Rome’s Richard B. Russell Airport shortly after 9:30 a.m., Floyd County Sheriff Mike Thornton said.
Among those killed were Bruno’s Chairman Angelo J. Bruno, his brother, Vice Chairman Lee J. Bruno, and three company vice presidents.
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