6 dead, 2 injured in skydiver plane crash in eastern Missouri

[Edwin P K 0]

6 dead, 2 injured in skydiver plane crash in eastern Missouri

 

 

Sullivan (US), July 30. (AP): A small plane carrying skydivers crashed shortly after takeoff, killing six people on board and injuring two others, authorities and witnesses have said.

 

Early reports yesterday indicated the plane may have struck a telephone pole before hitting a tree, Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said. It crashed about three metres from a house.

 

Four people were dead at the scene and two more died at St John's Mercy Hospital in Creve Couer, hosital spokesman David Downs said. One of the injured was in critical condition and one was in serious condition, Downs said.

 

No one on the ground was reported injured, Toelke said.

 

"People on the ground said they saw something happen to the engine, and the plane sort of entered into a nosedive," Toelke said.

 

The victims had not been identified, but some were believed to have been from the St Louis area.

 

The plane, a DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter, had taken off from the Sullivan Regional Airport in eastern Missouri a short time before the crash, said patrol operator Ken Tretter.

 

The plane was making a skydiving flight for Quantum Leap Skydiving Inc, said Mark Lacy, safety and training adviser for the company, which is located in Sullivan. There were eight people aboard, he said.

 

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate the crash, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said.

 

 

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NTSB Begins Probe of Deadly Plane Crash

By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD , 07.30.2006, 04:12 PM

 

Investigators worked Sunday to determine what caused a plane carrying skydivers to nosedive soon after takeoff, killing six people, including a man who was a member of the U.S. Parachute Team and had made thousands of jumps.

 

Two others were badly injured. Witnesses told police that the plane, a DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter, sounded as though it had engine trouble soon after taking off from the airport in Sullivan, about 70 miles southwest of St. Louis.

 

Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said the plane apparently struck a utility pole, then landed nose-first into a tree less than 10 feet from a house. No one on the ground was hurt.

 

The victims included Scott Cowan, who along with his brother Jim, owned Quantum Leap Skydiving Inc. The Sullivan-based company's plane took off about 2 p.m. Saturday and crashed moments later. Scott Cowan was piloting the plane, officials said.

 

The Cowan brothers had more than 13,000 jumps between them, and both were members of the U.S. Parachute Team that won four world championships and several national skydiving championships since 1990, according to the company's Web site.

 

Cowan, 42, and three passengers died at the scene. Two died later Saturday in a St. Louis hospital, where two others were still hospitalized Sunday.

 

Quantum Leap's Web site says the Cowan brothers had been involved in skydiving since childhood.

 

Several people affiliated with the company declined interview requests but said the company had a good safety record.

 

In an 1994 interview in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Scott Cowan said, "There's no truer sense of flying than sky diving. It's just the feeling of flying."