Airline Loses 2 Planes to Crashes in One Day; 3 Die

The National Transportation Safety Board opened an investigation Wednesday after an Ohio charter airline lost two small planes in separate accidents in a single day, killing three people.

Tuesday’s accidents, which occurred 400 miles apart, both involved Dassault Aviation Falcon 20s operated by Grand Aire Inc. The airline voluntarily suspended flights Wednesday.

“We can’t draw any inference beyond this being a coincidence,” NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said. “At the moment, they are being handled as separate events.”

The first plane crashed about a mile short of the runway at the Toledo airport, killing all three people on board. Five hours later, the second plane splashed down in the Mississippi River, not far from the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Both crew members were rescued; one was in serious condition and the other was listed as fair.

The causes of the accidents had not been determined, although the plane that went down in St. Louis was low on fuel, said FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory.

Police and the FBI there said they had no reason to suspect terrorism. Officials have listed the arch as a potential terrorism target.

“You can’t calculate the odds,” said Dick Williams, president of Aviation Data Source, a Denver aviation maintenance consulting company. “You have to immediately ask questions about what is in common about these two events.”

Officials in St. Louis praised pilots Saleem Iqbal and Mohammed Saleh for purposely flying clear of populated areas after their plane became low on fuel.

“This is a case of heroism, not terrorism,” said Tom Bush, head of the St. Louis FBI office.

Bush also credited Saleh with pulling Iqbal -- who could not swim -- from the wreckage and safeguarding him until rescuers arrived.

Saleh is a native Libyan who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, and Iqbal is a resident alien from Pakistan, authorities said Wednesday.