But Questions Remain In Crash That Killed Two Pilots

Poor weather conditions may have played a role in a 2006 runway overrun involving a Cessna Citation 560 in Iowa, according to the National Transportation Safety Board... but many questions about the fatal accident still remain.

According to the NTSB's interim factual report on the July 19, 2006 accident, the Citation was on an IFR flight plan from Oxford, MS to Rochester, MN. The jet attempted to land on Runway 33 at Ellen Church Field Airport (CJJ) in Cresco, IA, but overran the 2,949-foot concrete runway, skipped over an adjacent highway and impacted a cornfield.

Pilots Clyde Lewis and William Eisner were killed in the accident. Two passengers onboard were injured, reports The Associated Press, and had to be cut out of the wreckage.

The NTSB notes no alternate airport was filed by the Citation's flight crew, and the factual report does not say why the plane was attempting to land in Cresco.

A witness told investigators a "very dark bank of clouds" was to the west and northwest, with lightning and light rain in the vicinity. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident, according to the Board.

Other witnesses described the plane's unusual approach to the airport. A witness driving along Highway 9 told investigators he noticed an airplane with its landing lights on approaching the airport from the southeast -- which "seemed odd with the wind from the south that he would land from that side."

A second witness heading east on the highway said he "saw a plane look like it was going to land, but then [he] thought it was going too fast." A third witness said the Citation descended "quite fast," and watched the jet go past the airport hangars and cornfield adjacent to the runway.

The accident aircraft, N636SE, was operated by Jackson Air Charter, according to the Board.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov