Commuter Plane, Private Aircraft Collide; 14 Killed

A commuter plane and a private aircraft collided on an airport runway near Quincy, Ill., Tuesday night, exploding into a fireball and killing all 14 people aboard both aircraft.

A United Express turboprop with 10 passengers and a crew of two was landing at Baldwin Municipal Airport when the collision occurred with a smaller plane taxiing for takeoff with two occupants, aviation and emergency officials said.

The two planes struck just after 5 p.m. EST, said Toni Taylor, an officer with the Quincy Police Department. Skies were overcast at the time of the crash but visibility was 10 miles, authorities said.

The crash occurred after the larger plane landed, said Ruth Zenning, a spokeswoman with United Airlines, which contracts with United Express to provide commuter connections. Witnesses said the smaller plane appeared to run into the United Express plane, which was just beginning to slow on its path down the runway.

Mike Coultas, a private pilot driving into the airport’s parking lot at the time of the crash, told Cable News Network that he watched both planes approach each other on intersecting runways. The smaller plane, the pilot said, apparently struck the larger one.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Coultas said. The smaller plane, he said, “just embedded itself” in the turboprop.

The resulting explosion instantly engulfed both aircraft in flames. “I don’t think anything could be done at that point,” he said.

Several passengers were taken by ambulances to area hospitals, but all were pronounced dead, authorities reported. Coroner Chris Boyer said some of the victims would remain in the wreckage overnight because of the difficulty of working in the dark.

A United spokesman, Joe Hopkins, said victims’ names would not be released until family members had been notified. He said the airline had established an 800 number to provide information to families.

Firefighters from three local departments took about an hour to bring the blaze under control, officials said.

Thick black smoke could be seen from 10 miles away, said firefighter Darren Smith.

“The only thing that resembled an aircraft was the United Airlines tail section,” Smith said. “It was still intact.”

Don Zochert, a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration, said the larger plane was a 19-seat Beechcraft 1900 registered to Bloomington, Minn.-based Great Lakes Aviation, which contracts with United Express. The plane had flown into Quincy from Burlington, Iowa, Zenning said.

Adams County Sheriff Bob Noll said the other plane was a King Air 200.

FAA officials said a team from the National Transportation Safety Board was en route from Washington to investigate the crash and was expected to be at the site early today.

Air traffic at the Quincy airport, 10 miles from the Mississippi River and about 100 miles northwest of St. Louis, depends on pilots maintaining radio contact between aircraft. The obsolete control tower at the airport has not been used for some time.

The airport became a crucial lifeline to the Quincy area in 1993, when a historic flood on the Mississippi cut traffic across all area bridges between Illinois and Missouri.

Last August, a skydiver fell to his death at the Quincy airport during the World Free Fall Convention. It was the fifth death in the 11-year history of the world’s biggest skydiving festival.