EVELETH, Minn., Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A woman living less than a mile from where a small plane carrying Sen. Paul Wellstone crashed and burned said there was silence seconds before the Friday accident.
Megan Williams said when the plane first flew over her home, it seemed to be running normally but did sound much closer than normal.
A short time later the chartered King Air Turboprop went down in a wooded peat bog, killing all aboard -- Wellstone, his wife, Sheila, daughter, Marcia Wellstone Markuson; campaign aides Will McLaughlin, Tom Lapic and Mary McEvoy; and pilots Richard Conry and Michael Guess.
The plane had been headed for Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport. Wellstone had made the trip to attend the funeral of a friend.
"How do you explain a sound like that when people lost their lives?" Williams asked the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "I guess I'm glad I never saw it."
Williams said she's sorry she didn't call 911 immediately. She said she assumed the explosion she heard was just the usual noise from an Iron Range mine when she looked out her window and didn't see any smoke or fire.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board Monday tried to determine whether the plane's de-icing boots were functioning and in use as light snow and freezing rain fell. The propellers also are under examination.
The investigation was complicated by the plane's lack of a cockpit voice recorder. The plane's engines already have been taken to the airport for examination.
Investigators said the plane began to drift off course at least two minutes before it crashed. The flight had left the Minneapolis-St. Paul area about 9:30 a.m. Friday and radar data indicate it was routine until the final minutes, the NTSB said.
At 10:18 a.m. the pilot asked for and received clearance to land. The plane was headed straight west but at 10:19, the plane began turning south and then disappeared from radar within another minute. It was last seen on radar just north of the crash site.
NTSB chairwoman Carol Carmody said a normal landing required the plane to continue on its westerly course.
"We find the whole turn curious," Carmody said.
Wellstone's campaign staff scrambled Monday to organize a memorial service for Tuesday evening that is expected to attract upwards of 15,000 people to Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota. Overflow seating, complete with video and audio feeds, will be set up in the adjacent sports pavilion.
Campaign spokeswoman Allison Dobson said the service will be filled with music and eulogies "but at the same time, it's not going to be stuffy. I don't think it makes any sense, given who these people were. We want to put together something to celebrate the lives of these six beautiful people."
Among those expected to attend is former President Bill Clinton.
Impromptu memorials began popping up during Sunday religious services while family members of some of the victims toured the crash site, laying roses and lighting candles at a makeshift memorial area set up by crash investigators.
