Flight from Oroville to Butte Ends in Deadly Crash

John Demas

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Tragedy struck on Sunday, March 22, 2009, when many, including seven children, were killed in a fiery plane crash outside of the Bert Mooney airport. The original reports said seventeen were dead, but that number has been lowered to fourteen.

It is now believed that the flight, which left from Oroville Municipal Airport, was intended to be a ski trip for the children aboard. The crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. So far, the victims have not been officially identified. Initial reports stated that local residents were not believed to be on the flight, but The Napa Valley Register reports that a family of five from St. Helena, CA, were among the victims.

Eyewitnesses say the plane jerked sharply to the left and then went into a nosedive. The Pilatus PC-12 was meant to safely carry 12 adults. It is unclear at this time if the increase in passengers had anything to do with the crash since half of the passengers were children. The reason for the diversion to Butte is also being investigated since the original flight plan called for the plane to land in Bozeman, MT.

In the last three months four planes have crashed. Thankfully, two of those flights did not contain any casualties. A great loss of life can occur with plane crashes due to the sizes and speeds of the machinery involved in flight. There are many questions and few answers at the moment. Hopefully, after the investigation is concluded we can determine what caused the crash and can work toward preventing something like this from happening again.