BUTTE, Mont. — A single engine turboprop airplane nose-dived into a cemetery as it approached the Butte airport Sunday afternoon, killing 14 people aboard, a federal official said.
The number of those dead was confirmed by Karen Byrd, an FAA operations officer in Renton, Wash. Byrd said the death toll included seven adults and seven children.
The plane was believed to be taking its occupants on a ski trip to Montana. The death toll originally had been put as high as 17.
The aircraft crashed and burned at Holy Cross Cemetery, 500 feet short of Bert Mooney Airport in Butte, said FAA spokesman Mike Fergus.
"We think that it was probably a ski trip for the kids," Fergus said.
An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board offered few details at a press conference in Butte Sunday night. No cause of the crash was given.
"We are just beginning our investigation," said Kristi Dunks. "We don't have a lot of information at this time.
"Certain family members were contacted," she said. "At this point, I don't have an exact number."
A California newspaper, the Napa Valley Register, reported on its Web site late Sunday that a family of five from St. Helena, Calif., including three preschoolers, was among the victims.
Dunks would not say if there had been a distress call from the pilot. It was partly cloudy, the visibility was 10 miles and winds were blowing from the northwest around 10 mph at the time of the crash, according to hourly temperature information from the National Weather Service.
The aircraft had departed from Oroville, Calif., and the pilot had filed a flight plan showing a destination of Bozeman, about 85 miles southeast of Butte. But the pilot canceled his flight plan at some point and headed for Butte, Fergus said.
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