TOLEDO, Ohio — A twin-engine jet crashed in flames yesterday as it approached the Toledo airport, killing all three people on board, the sheriff said.
The Falcon 20 turbo jet, on its way from Traverse City, Mich., went down about 2 p.m. in a nature preserve a mile southwest of Toledo Express Airport.
“It just dropped right down into the woods,” Lucas County Sheriff James Telb said.
The victims were employees of Grand Aire, a charter company based in suburban Toledo that owned the plane, Telb said. Officials did not release their identities. Grand Aire representatives declined to comment.
Firefighters extinguished the flames after about two hours, Telb said.
The plane went down in a remote area of the Oak Openings Preserve MetroPark, Toledo Metroparks spokesman Scott Carpenter said. There are no shelter houses or parking lots in that area of the 3,500-acre nature preserve.
Air traffic controllers alerted authorities when the plane dropped off the radar, Telb said. Sheriff’s deputies and park rangers discovered the wreckage when they followed a horse trail toward smoke. Officials had not found any witnesses.
The plane went down in a spot thick with brush and leaves. “It was really difficult to reach it and even find it,” said Mike George, fire chief for the Ohio National Guard unit based at the airport. The wreckage lay in a heap surrounded by yellow police tape, still smoldering hours after the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it had sent an investigator to the crash site.
The plane apparently arrived in Traverse City sometime yesterday morning, either picked up or dropped off freight, and returned to Toledo, said Stephen Cassens, Cherry Capital Airport director.
Cassens said it did not appear the aircraft took on passengers in Traverse City. He did not know what type of freight was involved in the transfer.
Ron Height, of Swanton, said he stopped when he saw a large cloud of smoke coming from the woods while driving. He got to the crash site as the first rescuers arrived.
“It was pretty clear right away there wasn’t going to be a lot we could do,” he said.
There was a lot of smoke and some flames, but not a huge fireball, Height said.
“There wasn’t debris all over the place like you would think,” he said. “It was all in one spot.”
The plane, which can seat up to nine people, was built in 1968.
On July 18, 2002, a twin-engine plane owned by Grand Aire crashed as it attempted to land in dense fog at an airport in Columbus, Ind. The pilot was killed.
