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Company Suffers Two Crashes Hours Apart

SWANTON TOWNSHIP -- A flag outside Grand Aire Inc. was flown at half-staff on Wednesday.

The charter airline company with about 50 employees locally is coping with the deaths of three pilots and injuries to two more as two of its planes crashed on the same day, about eight months after another company pilot died in a crash.

A Grand Aire twin-engine jet crashed in flames about 2 p.m. Tuesday in a remote area of Oak Openings MetroPark as it approached Toledo Express Airport, killing all three people on board, authorities said. About five hours later, a second plane crashed into the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis. The pilot and co-pilot were pulled from the water and taken to the hospital, police and fire officials said.

``You can't calculate the odds,'' said Dick Williams, president of Aviation Data Source, a Denver-based aviation group. ``That's just not going to happen.''

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board began work at the Swanton Township  crash site Wednesday and were heading to St. Louis.

Three other Dassault Aviation Falcon 20s owned or operated by Grand Aire have crashed since 2000, according to National Transportation Safety Board records. The French-built planes have been a reliable, safe aircraft, Williams said. ``They're as easy to fly as any small jet,'' he said. ``There's nothing tricky about flying them.''

On July 18, a Piper PA-60 twin-engine plane owned by Grand Aire crashed as it tried to land in dense fog at an airport in Columbus, Ind., killing the pilot.

Grand Aire employees Dave Davenport, 40, of Elmore; Will Forshay, 37, of Maumee; and Wallis Bouldin, 34, who recently moved to Maumee, were killed in Tuesday's crash, the State Highway Patrol said. It was not yet clear who was the pilot.

Tahir Cheema, Grand Aire's owner and president, said all three were experienced fliers, but he declined further comment Tuesday. The plane, which can seat up to nine people, was built in 1968.

 The two injured in the St. Louis crash were identified as Saleem Iqbal, 34, and Mohammed Saleh, 44. Authorities said one was listed in critical condition and the other in serious. Police said the jet crashed moments after it missed an approach at Lambert Airport, forcing the pilot to go around and try to land again.

The Falcon 20 turbo jet bound for the Toledo airport had left Traverse City, Mich. It disappeared from radar in the air traffic control tower, Lucas County Sheriff James Telb said. Sheriff's deputies and park rangers alerted by the tower found the wreckage when they followed a horse trail toward smoke in thick vegetation in the nature preserve a mile southwest of the airport.

There are no shelter houses or parking lots in that area of the 3,500-acre Oak Openings Preserve MetroPark where the plane went down, Toledo Metroparks spokesman Scott Carpenter said. ``It was really difficult to reach it and even find it,'' said Mike George, fire chief for the Ohio National Guard unit based at the airport. Firefighters extinguished the flames after about two hours, Telb said. Hours later the still-smoldering wreckage lay in a heap surrounded by yellow police tape.

The plane apparently arrived in Traverse City sometime Tuesday morning, either picked up or dropped off freight, and returned to Toledo, said Stephen Cassens, Cherry Capital Airport director.

 Ron Height, of Swanton, said he stopped when he saw a large cloud of smoke coming from the woods while driving. He got to the crash site as the first rescuers arrived. ``It was pretty clear right away there wasn't going to be a lot we could do,'' he said.

The company, which offers passenger and freight charter services as well as trucking, moved to the Toledo airport from Monroe, Mich., in 1999.

St. Louis police and the FBI said there was no reason to believe the crash was the result of possible terrorism, but they were investigating as a precaution. ``Because the country is on an orange alert and because Mississippi River bridges have been listed as possible terrorism targets, we are handling this matter with extreme caution,'' Mayor Francis Slay said, but he warned against jumping to conclusions.

Updated 4/9/2003 1:15 p.m.