Photo Credit: CBS ChicagoGARY, Ind. (AP/NewsChannel 5) - Authorities said two men were killed when a single-engine plane traveling from Smyrna crashed into a wooded area about a mile short of Gary/Chicago International Airport.
Gary police Cmdr. Sean A. Jones said late Wednesday that officials with the Lake County coroner removed the bodies form the scene around 5:30 p.m.
Jones said the victims' names haven't been released.
He said the plane was a Cirrus SR22 traveling from Smyrna, Tennessee. It crashed at 11:18 a.m. Wednesday as it approached the Gary-based airfield.
"The Gary jet center did, in fact, expect the aircraft to land. The expected time was 11:19, but they never received any distress signal," Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson told CBS Chicago.
Gary officials said the pilot and passenger had been thrown from the wreckage.
William Vargas, a contractor, told CBS in Chicago that he heard the plane explode.
"I heard it," he said. "I didn't see the plane but I heard the explosion." He said he saw "a big flame and dark smoke."
Neighborhood resident Hattie James said the plane landed behind a fire station and a charter school.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane is registered to Gandy AIR LLC in St. Augustine, Fla. A phone call to the business earlier Wednesday rang unanswered.
(Copyright The Associated Press/NewsChannel 5.)
