A commuter plane crashed in a wooded area Tuesday as it approached an airport in northeastern Missouri, killing at least eight of the 15 people on board, officials said. Two people survived and five are missing, according to Adair County Chief Deputy Larry Logston, one of the first people to respond to the scene. Two of the 15 people on board were crew members.
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Kirksville is about 220 miles northwest of St. Louis.
Dr. Charles Zeman, head of Northeast Regional Medical Center, said it's "truly a miracle" anyone survived the crash. Zeman said doctors "see car accidents with worse injuries" every week. He treated a male survivor for a broken hip and a broken bone in his lower back. The second-known survivor, a 44-year-old woman, has a compound fracture of her right arm and mild to severe burns over 8 percent of her body. Both are in fair condition and in intensive care for observation.
NBC reporter Kim Hibbs said from Kirksville Wednesday morning that searchers did not expect to find more survivors among the five missing people. Hibbs said the search was resumed at daybreak after being called off for several hours.
Hibbs said the female survivor was found walking around the crash site. The male survivor was found about "25 feet from the fuselage."
The last communication from the Jetstream 32 twin-engine turboprop indicated it was on a normal approach to Kirksville Regional Airport, and there was no mention of any problems, said Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Chicago.
The plane crashed four miles south of the Kirksville airport, she 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., she said.
"It was scheduled for a 6:42 p.m. departure and 7:42 p.m. arrival," according to Hibbs. "At 7:42, the pilot radioed, with no problems, but the plane crash was reported at 7:55 p.m."
Corporate Airlines, based in Smyrna, Tenn., began operating in 1996. It flies a commuter carrier for American, with service from St. Louis to smaller towns mostly in Missouri and Tennessee. The company flies 19-seat Jetsream 32s, which were introduced in 1982 by British Aerospace, part of BAE Systems. Doug Caldwell was identified as Corporate Airlines' CEO.
Federal transportation investigators said Wednesday morning that the plane's black box had been found.
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