PONTIAC, Mich. -- A twin-engine plane, warned not to attempt a landing because of zero visibility in dense fog, crashed and burst into flames Thursday night, killing its three occupants.
'They normally pick an alternate airport,' in bad weather, said Oakland-Pontiac Airport manager Dave Vanderveer of the ill-fated flight from Tulsa, Okla.
'They could have gone to Flint or Lansing or Detroit.'
But Vanderveer and Waterford Township police said the pilot attempted to make an instrument landing despite the warning and the Piper-Cheyenne smashed into two approach light towers, shattering debris over a 500-yard area and bursting into flames.
Vanderveer said, 'My understanding is the tower notified the pilot of the (foggy) weather conditions and they aparently approached the runway anyway.'
Standard aircraft safety procedure requires selection of alternate landing sites, authorities said.
Ray Sutton, an airport rescue crew member, was one of the first to reach the wreckage.
'The fuselage was really blazing,' he said. 'That was the only way we found it because of the fog.'
Firefighters arrived on the scene and extinguished the burning debris.
The three men were killed instantly. They were Joseph and Dan Ninowski, brothers of Detroit Lion quaterback Jim Nonowski and the pilot, Dean Spencer.
Airport officials had closed the airport earlier in the evening after dense fog reduced visibility to zero under a 200-foot ceiling.
Federal Aviation Administration officials were on the scene today.
