Kansas plane crash leaves Oral Robert students dead, several others injured www.privateofficer.com

 

Chanute KS May 14 2012 An Oklahoma newspaper is reporting three recent graduates of Oral Roberts University and a former business instructor were killed when a small airplane crashed in Kansas. Austin Anderson, 27, of Tulsa, is the fourth fatality.

The Tulsa World reports a fifth person, also an Oral Roberts graduate, was badly injured when the twin-engine Cessna crashed about 4:30 p.m. Friday northwest of Chanute.

The Kansas Highway Patrol identifies the victims, along with Anderson, as 23-year-old Luke Sheets of Ephraim, Wisconsin., who was flying the plane; 29-year-old Garrett Coble of Tulsa, Oklahoma.; and 22-year-old Stephen Luth of Muscatine, Iowa.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson says the eight-seat plane departed left Tulsa headed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and lost contact with air traffic control shortly after getting permission to descend to a lower altitude.

The Kansas Highway Patrol has identified the victims of a plane crash in rural Southeast Kansas Friday.

The pilot of the single-engine Cessna 401 was Luke Sheets, 23, of Ephraim, Wisconsin. Sheets was killed, along with passengers Garrett Coble, 29, and Stephen Luth, 22. Coble was reportedly from Tulsa, while Luth was from Muscatine, Iowa.

Two people survived the crash. They are identified as Austin Anderson, 27, of Ringwood, OK, and Hannah Luce, 22, of Garden Valley, TX.

UPDATE: Friday, May 11, 2012

The National Transportation Safety Board says three people have died in the crash of a small plane in southeastern Kansas.

NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson says five people were aboard the twin-engine Cessna 401 when it went down around 4:30 p.m. Friday northwest of Chanute. Knudson says the eight-seat plane caught fire after the crash.

The Federal Aviation Administration is also investigating and says the crash occurred about seven miles northwest of Chanute. That’s a generally rural area.

Knudson says the plane was en route from Riverside, OK, to Council Bluffs, IA. He said the plane lost contact with air traffic control shortly after getting permission to descend to a lower altitude.

Knudson says investigators were unaware of any distress call.

No other information about the people on board was immediately available.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Federal officials are describing the crash of a small plane in southeastern Kansas as a fatality accident.

The plane went down Friday afternoon about seven miles northwest of Chanute.

Few details were immediately available. The area is mostly rural.

Peter Knudson of the National Transportation Safety Board confirms the crash was fatal but he did not know how many people were aboard or how many died.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory identified the plane as a twin-engine Cessna 402. Her agency is also investigating.

Messages left for the Wilson County Sheriff’s Department and Kansas Highway Patrol weren’t immediately returned.

Source:KAKE.com