MISSOURI Plane crash kills at least 8; crews search for survivors

Two survivors were immediately found and were in reasonably good condition.
KIRKSVILLE, Mo. (AP) -- Emergency crews searched woods and open fields early today for possible survivors of a commuter plane crash that killed at least eight people but left two others with only broken bones.
The American Airlines-affiliated Corporate Airlines plane, a twin-engine turboprop, crashed in the woods a few miles short of the Kirksville airport where it was preparing to land. Five people were missing, and the cause of the crash had not been determined.
One survivor, a 44-year-old woman, was walking around when rescuers arrived at the crash scene, and a 68-year-old man was found alive in brush about 25 feet from the fuselage.
"We see car accidents with worse injuries coming in here every week," said Dr. Charles Zeman, director of trauma services at Northeast Regional Medical Center. "This is truly a miracle."
Zeman said the male survivor broke his left hip and a bone in his lower back. The woman suffered a compound fracture of right arm and mild to severe burns over 8 percent of her body. Both were in stable condition.
Hope
Sgt. Brent Bernhardt of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said rescue workers were holding out hope the five missing -- all passengers -- also survived the crash and would be discovered in the daylight.
"We had officers out there all night," he said. "I'm confident that they did a good search, but I can tell you the area is heavy brush, it's hard to see through. When the daylight arrives, it's going to help us out tremendously."
The wreckage was scattered over an area about one mile across, but the two survivors were discovered "so close to the plane we're imagining the others probably should have been close to the plane if they survived," Adair County Chief Deputy Larry Logston said.
The plane -- Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 -- was on a regular route from St. Louis with 13 passengers and two crew members aboard when it crashed shortly after 7:50 p.m., said Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Chicago.
The scene
The plane clipped treetops before crashing on its belly. Emergency crews found the fuselage engulfed in flames and largely intact, with the wings broken off nearby, Logston said.
All eight of those known dead were found in the fuselage, some still in their seats and the two crew members in the cockpit area, he said.
The last communication from the Jetstream 32 indicated it was on a normal approach to Kirksville Regional Airport in northeastern Missouri, and there was no mention of any problems, Cory said.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived at the airport this morning and recovered both of the plane's flight data recorders.