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17 killed in Montana plane crash
A plane crashed in Butte, Montana, killing some 17 people, mostly children, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.
A plane crashed in Butte, Montana, killing some 17 people, mostly children, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.
The plane, a single engine turboprop, was heading from Orvilla, California to Bozeman, Montana, but at some
point made a detour for Butte, where it attempted to land, said a preliminary FAA report.
It crashed on Sunday 150 metres short of the runway, with 17 people confirmed dead by the FAA.
Most of the victims were children who were heading for a skiing trip in Bozeman, a reporter for the Montana
Standard newspaper told CNN.
Other reports said the plane encountered strong winds before the accident.
Pictures from the accident scene showed towering flames shooting up behind a cemetery near Butte airport.
A witness of the crash that took one of the pictures, who identified herself as Martha Guidoni, told CNN
"we watched this plane just take a nosedive right into the cemetery."
She and her husband rushed to the scene of the crash to see if anybody could be helped, but said: "We were
too late. There was nothing to help."
