At Least 8 Killed in Missouri Plane Crash

A commuter plane crashed Tuesday in woods as it approached an airport in northeastern Missouri, killing at least eight of the 15 people aboard, officials said.

At least two people on the flight from St. Louis survived and were being treated at a hospital, and five were missing, said Adair County Chief Deputy Larry Logston.

Of the 15 people, 13 were passengers and two were crew members.

The last communication from the Jetstream 32 twin-engine turboprop indicated that it was on a normal approach to Kirksville Regional Airport, and there was no mention of problems, said Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Chicago.

Weather conditions in the area at the time of the crash were overcast with mist and some thunderstorms, according to an FAA weather observing system. It was not clear if the plane went down in a storm.

The plane crashed four miles south of the Kirksville airport, Cory said. The plane, believed to have been Corporate Airlines Flight 5966, was on a regular route from St. Louis when it crashed shortly after 7:30 p.m. CDT, she said.

Logston said a man and a woman survived.

The two were being treated at Northeast Regional Medical Center in Kirksville, according to Larry Rodgers, a spokesman for the hospital. He said both were stable but had no information about the extent of their injuries.

Corporate Airlines, based in Smyrna, Tenn., began operating in 1996 and is affiliated with American Airlines.

As American Connection, Corporate provides 70 flights from 13 cities in the Midwest to St. Louis and Nashville with a fleet of 17 aircraft.

Doug Caldwell, Corporate Airlines’ chief executive, said the crash was the airline’s first fatal accident. The airline was trying to contact the families of all the passengers Tuesday night, he said.

Kirksville is about 220 miles northwest of St. Louis.