Date: 7/31/2008 11:27 PM
By AMY FORLITI
Associated Press Writer
OWATONNA, Minn. (AP) _ A small jet crashed Thursday while preparing to land at a regional airport in Minnesota, killing eight people, including casino and construction executives.
Authorities initially thought 10 people may have been aboard the Raytheon Hawker 800, which went down about 9:30 a.m. about 60 miles south of the Twin Cities.
But by late evening, Department of Public Safety spokesman Doug Neville said it had been confirmed that eight people were on board.
The plane was carrying two pilots. Seven people were dead at the scene. One died later at a hospital.
Severe weather had been moving through southern Minnesota earlier Thursday, but witnesses and the National Weather Service said the storms were subsiding at the time of the crash.
The charter jet, flying from Atlantic City, N.J., to Owatonna, a town of 25,000, went down in a cornfield northwest of Degner Regional Airport, Sheriff Gary Ringhofer said. The wreckage was not visible to reporters because tall corn obscured the crash site.
The debris was scattered 500 feet beyond the airport’s runway. Late Thursday, the Dakota County coroner was on the scene working to identify victims.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigating team will look at a variety of factors, such as the plane structure and weather, said John Lovell, the investigator in charge.
A cockpit voice recorder and a flight management system were recovered and sent to be analyzed, the NTSB said.
Cameron Smith, a mechanic at the airport, said he spoke by radio with the jet’s pilot just minutes before the crash. The pilot was about to land and was asking where he should park for fuel, Smith said.
He ran to the crash scene to see if anyone could be helped, but saw only a long skid path and debris that he described as “shredded.”
He said: “There was no fuselage. There were just parts.”
By late Thursday night, five of the eight victims had been identified. They are:
— Karen Sandland, 44, a project manager on the Revel casino project who worked out of Tishman Construction’s Newark, N.J. office, company spokesman Bud Perrone said.
— Two pilots, Clark Keefer of Bethlehem, Pa. and Dan D’Ambrosio of Hellertown, Pa., according to Brad Cole, president of East Coast Jets, the company which owned the plane.
— Two executives of APG International, a Glassboro, N.J. company that specializes in glass facades: Marc Rosenberg, the company’s chief operating officer, and Alan Barnett, its assistant project manager, according to company spokeswoman Amelia Townsend.
Revel spokeswoman Valerie Edmonds confirmed that three Revel employees were killed in the crash, but said their identities would not be released until Friday at the earliest.
The airport lies alongside Interstate 35 as it skirts Owatonna’s western edge. The airport’s Web site describes it as “ideal for all classes of corporate aircraft use” with an all-weather instrument landing system.
___
Associated Press writer Wayne Parry in Atlantic City, N.J. contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
Past Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447 :: Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Crane collapses on Texas bridge; 1 worker killed
Date: 7/30/2008 9:06 PM
By KELLEY SHANNON
Associated Press Writer
SMITHVILLE, Texas (AP) _ A crane that was removing steel beams to dismantle an old river bridge became overloaded and toppled Wednesday, killing one worker and injuring another.
The crane smashed into a raised basket where the two men were working, knocking one off and killing him, said Smithville police Lt. Lonny Richardson. The man, identified as 47-year-old James Michael Miles, fell about 60 feet from the top of the old bridge and landed on construction equipment, Richardson said.
The bridge is about 75 feet above the Colorado River in Smithville in central Texas.
The workers were trying to loosen the joints of one beam, or girder, when another beam also became loose and caused the crane to topple, said Marcus Cooper, Texas Department of Transportation spokesman.
The operator of the crane managed to get out of the way “when things started going bad” and wasn’t injured, Richardson said. The two men in the lift basket wore safety belts, and the injured worker remained tethered to the basket with his belt after the accident, he said.
The condition of the injured worker at University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin wasn’t immediately available. Richardson said he was in his 40s and from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Richardson said both men were in their 40s and from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The crane tumbled from what appeared to a manmade gravel base and landed partly in the water. The bridge being dismantled has been replaced by a new bridge nearby.
Capital Excavation of Austin, the primary contractor, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment Wednesday. The employees both worked for Stomper Demolition in Euless, but the company didn’t own the crane, general manager Ray Tupper said.
When the crane toppled on the riverbed, a small amount of oil spilled into the river, but booms were in place to clean it up. Richardson said the spill likely has been contained.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, construction company officials and insurance company representatives were arriving to investigated. Police said the earliest the crane would be moved would be Thursday.
Several deadly crane accidents have occurred nationally this year, including one in Houston this month that killed four workers and injured seven. Crane-related deaths have also occurred in New York, Miami and Las Vegas.
Texas led the nation with 26 crane-related fatalities in 2005 and 2006, according to federal statistics. Cranes in Texas operate without any state or local oversight, leaving that job to federal regulators.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
The above AP story is the second fatal crane collapse in Texas this month.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
Past Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447 :: Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
By KELLEY SHANNON
Associated Press Writer
SMITHVILLE, Texas (AP) _ A crane that was removing steel beams to dismantle an old river bridge became overloaded and toppled Wednesday, killing one worker and injuring another.
The crane smashed into a raised basket where the two men were working, knocking one off and killing him, said Smithville police Lt. Lonny Richardson. The man, identified as 47-year-old James Michael Miles, fell about 60 feet from the top of the old bridge and landed on construction equipment, Richardson said.
The bridge is about 75 feet above the Colorado River in Smithville in central Texas.
The workers were trying to loosen the joints of one beam, or girder, when another beam also became loose and caused the crane to topple, said Marcus Cooper, Texas Department of Transportation spokesman.
The operator of the crane managed to get out of the way “when things started going bad” and wasn’t injured, Richardson said. The two men in the lift basket wore safety belts, and the injured worker remained tethered to the basket with his belt after the accident, he said.
The condition of the injured worker at University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin wasn’t immediately available. Richardson said he was in his 40s and from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Richardson said both men were in their 40s and from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The crane tumbled from what appeared to a manmade gravel base and landed partly in the water. The bridge being dismantled has been replaced by a new bridge nearby.
Capital Excavation of Austin, the primary contractor, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment Wednesday. The employees both worked for Stomper Demolition in Euless, but the company didn’t own the crane, general manager Ray Tupper said.
When the crane toppled on the riverbed, a small amount of oil spilled into the river, but booms were in place to clean it up. Richardson said the spill likely has been contained.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, construction company officials and insurance company representatives were arriving to investigated. Police said the earliest the crane would be moved would be Thursday.
Several deadly crane accidents have occurred nationally this year, including one in Houston this month that killed four workers and injured seven. Crane-related deaths have also occurred in New York, Miami and Las Vegas.
Texas led the nation with 26 crane-related fatalities in 2005 and 2006, according to federal statistics. Cranes in Texas operate without any state or local oversight, leaving that job to federal regulators.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
The above AP story is the second fatal crane collapse in Texas this month.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
Past Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447 :: Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
