Six die when private plane crashes in Missouri

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CARTERVILLE, Mo. — A private plane crashed into a garage early yesterday, killing all six people aboard. The two men inside the home escaped injury.

The twin-engine plane had left Lake Charles, La., and was heading for Joplin Regional Airport when it crashed shortly before 1 a.m., Jasper County Sheriff's Capt. Tony Coleman said.

Mike Spry, 49, and his 25-year-old son were asleep in the home when the plane hit their garage.

"I just heard a big boom. ... I figured it was a car crash," Spry said. "I just didn't figure a plane would come falling out of the sky."

When he got up and saw his kitchen wall was bowed inward, he then suspected a gas explosion. He finally realized it was a plane when he saw neighbors inspecting the wreckage with flashlights. The roof and part of the walls were sheared off the garage and the car inside was heavily damaged.

The dead were identified as the plane's co-owners, Earl Trahan and Jerry Johnson; Johnson's stepdaughters, Johnie Quebodeaux and Shanna Shields; Shields' husband, William Shields; and the pilot, whose name was withheld pending notification of relatives.

Authorities said Johnson was going to Joplin because his 7-year-old daughter had been injured in an accident while visiting there with her mother.

Witnesses reported seeing no flames after the crash, and Coleman said investigators would look into the possibility that the plane had run out of fuel.