Morning Sentinel
WEST GARDINER: Airplane crash kills 2
By MATTHEW STONE
Staff Writers Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 02/02/2008

WEST GARDINER -- Two people apparently died when a plane crashed in a heavily wooded area of West Gardiner minutes after taking off Friday night from Augusta State Airport.

Emergency responders searched near Melissa Drive for any survivors of the six-seat Cessna Citation jet that went down in a sleet storm.

Two people -- a woman who was piloting the plane and a passenger, reported to be a young boy age 6 or 8 -- were seen boarding the jet before it took off at 5:45 p.m. from Augusta, heading for Lincoln, Neb., airport officials said.

"We found a 200-by 300-yard debris field," Gardiner Fire Chief Mark Kimball said from the scene. "We are aggressively searching for victims."

Inside the fire station, neighbors said chaos and uncertainty reigned as officials began coordinating rescue efforts with limited information available. Officials prohibited a reporter from entering the fire station.

Residents who were outdoors at the time of the crash said the plane caught fire on impact and ignited vegetation surrounding the crash site.

"I saw an orange glow in the sky," Melissa Drive resident Eric Lisch said. "I wasn't sure what it was. That would be the last I thing I would have thought -- a plane crash."

Melissa Drive resident Karl Swenson said he and his wife heard the plane crash from inside their house.

"We didn't think much of it until everyone showed up," Swenson said.

Rescue workers located the wreckage before 6:30 p.m. and were determining how to reach the heavily wooded crash site about a mile off the road while, nearby, residents lined Melissa Drive with snowmobiles and cars. Some offered to lend their snowmobiles and ATVs to firefighters. Firefighters, sheriff's deputies and Maine State Police officers set up a command center at the West Gardiner Fire Station to coordinate the rescue effort.

Radio traffic indicated the pilot reported having problems shortly before contact was broken. Maine State Police were alerted by a call from the Federal Aviation Administration, according to Steve McCausland, state police spokesman.

"We initially got the word from the FAA, presumably because it disappeared from radar," McCausland said.

At 7 p.m. Friday, the FAA flight tracker showed progress of the twin-jet aircraft frozen at 58 minutes into flight.

The jet had been parked at the airport for several days, according to David Smith, chief pilot for Maine Instrument Flight. He said he did not know the names of the people aboard.

The Cessna Citation CJ1 aircraft is registered to the Jeanette Symons Trust of San Francisco and arrived Saturday in Augusta from Quad City International Airport in Moline, Ill.

At the Maine Instrument Flight office at the Augusta airport, Smith and two others fielded phone calls from the press and others.

Most of the lights were off inside the nearby commercial terminal at the time the crash was reported.

"Colgan's done for the night," Smith said. "They quit early because of the weather."

John Guimond, manager of the Augusta State Airport, said runways were not plowed Friday evening during the storm.

"You let the rain hit the snow and scrape it off when it stops raining," Guimond said.

He said he expected to see FAA investigators at the airport today since Augusta was the point of departure.

Guimond said he had little information about the airplane or who may have been aboard.

"Because it's general aviation, Maine Instrument Flight handles all the private planes," Guimond said.

As rescue workers prepared for a long night, Jeanette Stackpole, wife of West Gardiner Fire Chief Ken Stackpole, and her son unloaded boxes of bottled water from a car at the West Gardiner Fire Department.

"I have all the supplies at my house," she said. "I help out where I can."

Staff photographer Andy Molloy contributed to this report.

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