ZURICH, Switzerland, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Zurich police said 24 people were killed and nine injured late Saturday when a Swiss jetliner crashed on approach to Zurich International Airport.
Weather conditions were poor at the time of the accident, with rain and some snow, according to authorities. Crossair flight 3597 from Berlin was carrying 28 passengers and five crew, the airline said.
The crash remains under investigation, Zurich police said Sunday. Both flight recorders have been recovered and are currently being analyzed.
The Zurich-based airline said the passengers on board were from Israel, Canada, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States.
Prof. Yaacov Matzner, dean of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical facility, Prof. Amiram Eldor, head of the Hematology department at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, and Avishai Berkman, head of economic development for Tel Aviv, were on the flight, Israel radio reported.
CNN reported Sunday that U.S. singer Melanie Thornton was killed in the crash. Thornton's latest single "Wonderful Dream" is the song of a new Coca-Cola commercial and was due to be in stores on Monday.
Thornton, born in May 1967 in South Carolina, was for a number of years the voice of La Bouche with whom she had worldwide success with songs such as "Sweet Dreams," "Fallin in Live" or "Be My Lover."
A survivor, talking to Swiss network Tele24 from her hospital bed, described the experience as similar to a "horror film."
"It was like in a horror film, a nightmare," Myriam Wettstein said. "I had no time to be scared, I was just very cold.
She said flames had engulfed the plane, but that she had climbed out of the wreckage and into the snowy forest through a hole.
"We are shocked and deeply saddened to suffer another accident," said Andre Dose, Crossair's chief executive officer.
A Crossair jetliner taking off from Zurich crashed in January 2000, killing 10 people. Founded in 1975, Crossair is a subsidiary of financially troubled Swissair Group.
Dose said the airline flies between Swiss cities and other destinations in Europe. Swissair filed for bankruptcy two months ago, and Crossair is due to take over two-thirds of it operations in a government-financed bailout.
The aircraft, a British made four-engine Avro RJ100, had accumulated 13,193 flight hours as of Nov. 24. It was manufactured in 1996, and had its latest technical inspection on Nov. 16, 2001.
Crossair hasn't identified the pilot, but the company said he was a Swiss national "with many years experience."
