Charter Jet Crash In Minnesota Kills 8, 1 Missing

July 31, 2008 7:26 p.m. EST

Owatonna, MN (AHN) - A charter jet carrying business people to a meeting here crashed Thursday near the Degner Regional Airport amid bad weather, killing eight people and leaving one passenger missing.

The Raytheon Hawker 800 owned by East Coast Jets Inc. was carrying customers of Owatonna-based glass company Viracon when it crashed in a cornfield at 9:46 a.m. The plane had two pilots.

Steele County Sheriff Gary Ringhofer did not reveal the names of the victims, one of whom survived but died later in the town's hospital. But Bud Perrone, a spokesman for Tishman Construction, identified one of the victims as Karen Sandland, who was a project manager for Revel Entertainment, according the Minnesota Public Radio.

A spokesman from Revel Entertainment confirmed that several of its employees died in the crash but did not release the names of the dead.

An architectural firm in New Jersey also had employees aboard the ill-fated plane.

The plane was coming from Atlantic City, NJ, and was scheduled to land at 9:42 a.m. for a two-hour stopover before resuming flight to Crossville, TN.