Tue March 4, 2008
Plane crashes in Oklahoma City
Police and fire officials are reporting a small jet has crashed in northwest Oklahoma City.
The plane crashed about 3:15 p.m. near NW 10 and Council, said Roland Herwig, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. He said it was a Cessna 500, also known as a Citation. The aircraft departed Wiley Post and crashed 5 miles southwest of Wiley Post.
We are told, and this is preliminary, that there is at least one fatality, Herwig said. We don’t know how many were on board at this point.
He said the destination was Mankato, Minn.
Herwig also said the registered owner of the aircraft is Southwest Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Clinic P.C. of Oklahoma City.
The plane belongs to Dr. Anthony L. Cruse, said Wayne Allison, a clinic official. Cruse was not on the plane and was performing surgery at the time of the crash.
Cruse does not know who was aboard the plane, Allison said.
As she was driving west on NW 10 to Bethany, the plane flew right over Lindsey Allison, who is not associated with the clinic. The small plane was going south.
She thought it was a stunt plane.
It was flipping and spinning and going almost upside down. It was all happening right in front of me. Then it seemed to lose all control; it went straight down and crashed, said Allison, a clerk with the Oklahoma County sheriff’s office. With her was her son, Levi, 6.
I couldn’t believe that it was going to crash, she said. She thought she was the second person on the accident scene
A fire department official could not say whether there were any fatalities or injuries. Fire, police and paramedics are on the scene.
