A Comair commuter plane crashed yesterday afternoon just 25 miles outside of snow-blanketed Ann Arbor, killing all 29 on board.
LSA senior Arita Sharangpani and at least four Detroit residents were among those killed. Comair officials released the names of 20 victims last night and they plan to announce the remaining names this morning.
Comair flight 3272 was 18 miles from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport when it went down just before 4 p.m. into an open field near a farmhouse in Raisinville Township.
"I saw the plane doing barrel rolls and it went straight down. There was a fireball and some smoke after it hit the ground," Theodore Rath, a 69-year-old farmer, said last night.
Rath said he stood about 800 feet from the low-flying plane when it took a nosedive into four inches of snow.
"The way it came down, there was no way anybody could survive," said Rath, who said he heard a "terrible noise" as he walked outside to get his newspaper.
Officials confirmed last night that all 26 passengers and three crew members died when the twin-engine Embraer 120, on its way to the Detroit airport from Cincinnati, crashed into the field.
Federal Aviation Administration officials said yesterday the pilot of Flight 3272 did not indicate any problems as the plane approached Detroit. The 30-seat propeller plane went down at 3:50 p.m., Don Zachart, an FAA spokesperson, said in a statement.
As press and rescue workers gathered at the crash site, Monroe County Sheriff Tilman Crutchfield said that investigation efforts would continue today.
"We expect no activity on the scene until tomorrow morning," Crutchfield said at 9 p.m. last night, as snow continued to fall on the site. "It will be protected with coverings until then."
Crutchfield said a temporary morgue had been established at the site and an FAA investigator had arrived last night.
Detroit airport spokesperson Barbara Hogan said flight 3272 was due to arrive at 4:15 p.m.
An eerie quietness surrounded the airport yesterday evening as news of the crash spread. Security perimeters were set outside the airline's gate and only passengers with tickets were allowed through.
One woman, who believed that her husband may have been on flight 3272, ran to the gate screaming and crying.
"I want to see if my husband is on this flight," the young woman yelled to security guards who would not let her through. "If this were your family ... ."
Hogan said friends and relatives of flight 3272 victims gathered at a hotel near the airport where counselors were available.
Meanwhile, the expected seven inches of snow left many other flights at the airport delayed or cancelled.
LSA junior Carrie Del Greco, who stood outside the gate waiting for her friend's United Airlines flight to arrive from India, said the airport seemed "uneasy."
Del Greco said the snowy weather worried her and the crash of the Comair flight only increased her tension.
"My mom freaked out and called the airport and wanted to know if his flight was the one that crashed," Del Greco said. "We've been waiting here for a few hours and the flight's still not here."
While Del Greco's friend eventually returned to Ann Arbor, the passengers of flight 3272 never made it to their destination.
As that plane approached Detroit, calm winds and light snow contributed to the 1.75 miles of visibility, said Charles Curran, Comair senior vice president, during a televised news conference.
"This is one of those tough, tough days," Curran said.
Curran said there had been no reports of trouble when the flight took off, and the crew was rested. Capt. Dann Carlsen, a Comair pilot since February 1990, had been off from work on Wednesday. Also on the flight were First Officer Kenneth Reece and flight attendant Darinda Ogden.
The crew had made one round-trip earlier in the day to Detroit.
The Embraer 120 is a Brazilian-built turboprop that can carry up to 30 passengers. There have been three fatal crashes in recent years involving the same model, a plane popular with regional and commuter airlines. Comair owns 40 such planes.
The plane was purchased by Comair in February 1992, and there were no maintenance problems at that time, Curran said. The plane was last inspected Nov. 20.
According to The Associated Press, Comair has had just one other plane crash, when in 1978, eight people were killed in a passenger plane.
- Daily Staff Reporters Stephanie Powell and Jenni Yachnin contributed to this report.
AP PHOTO
Above: Rescue workers sift through the remains of Comair flight 3272 yesterday afternoon after the twinprop commuter plane crashed in a field in Raisinville Township, Mich., shortly before 4 p.m. The flight was on its way to Detroit Metropolitan Airport when it went down, killing all 29 aboard.