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The airplane had left Indianapolis about an hour before it
crashed roughly 2-1/2 miles from its destination, the Central
Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington, Illinois, about 160
miles to the west, officials said.
Torrey Ward, 36, the associate head coach for Illinois State's
men's basketball team, Aaron Leetch, 37, a deputy athletics
director, and five supporters of the program died in the crash,
the university said.
"Words cannot fully express the grief that is felt in the wake
of such a tragedy," Illinois State President Larry Dietz said in
a statement. "We move between shock and profound sadness."
The McLean County Coroner's Office identified all seven of the
men, who were all from the Bloomington-Normal area and were
found belted into their seats in the wreckage.
Also killed were Terry Stralow, 64, Scott Bittner, 42, Andy
Butler, 40, Jason Jones, 45 and pilot Thomas Hileman, 51, the
coroner's office said.
The airplane had been in contact with air traffic control in
Peoria, which was handling approaches because the Bloomington
airport's tower is closed at that time, officials said.
A search was launched when the airplane did not report back to
controllers that it had landed and it was not found at the
airport, the McLean County Sheriff's Department said in a
statement.
The crashed airplane was found about three hours later in a
soybean field with no survivors, the sheriff's office said.
The Federal Aviation Administration identified the airplane as a
Cessna 414, which is a twin-engine airplane that carries up to
10 people. The National Transportation Safety Board has taken
custody of the airplane and is leading the investigation.
(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Sandra
Maler and Alan Raybould)
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