Weird Plane Crash in St. Louis yesterday.

Jefferson City News Tribune ^

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Two men aboard a charter jet survived when the plane crashed into the Mississippi River near the McKinley Bridge north of St. Louis Tuesday night.

The men, identified as Saleem Iqbal, 34, and Mohammed Saleh, 44, were rescued and taken to a hospital, where one was listed in critical condition and the other serious condition. Authorities did not specify which one was critical and which serious.

"Because the country is on an orange alert and because Mississippi River bridges have been listed as possible terrorism targets, we are handling this matter with extreme caution," Mayor Francis Slay said.

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Didn't see this when I searched. My first official post. Please be kind to a novice...

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[Blueflag]

Lambert Field is due west of the Mississippi river bridges. If this plane was flying any direction other than east-to-west, then there is cause for suspicion

[abner]

Interesting first post. No need to flame you, yet. ;-)

[coloradan]

The men, identified as Saleem Iqbal, 34, and Mohammed Saleh, 44,

Hmmmmmmmm.... shot down?

[Not Insane]

Funny, but if the guys had been named John Wilkinson and Pat O'mally, I wouldn't have given this a thought...

[Mamzelle]

re: The plane belongs to Ohio-based Grand Aire Inc., which had another plane crash about five hours earlier in Ohio, killing all three people on board)))

Now this is some coincidence. Two crashes within 24 hours. This company also had a crash in July.

[Poohbah]

Three crashes in less than a year?

That is NOT the company to charter a plane from!

[Shermy]

Here's the other crash:

Ohio Plane Crash Kills Three Passengers

[Shermy]

French planes.

[mountaineer]

Interesting. I hope someone's looking into the Ohio company that owned this plane, considering they had two crash on the same day.

From the article:

The FBI and police were investigating to determine whether the crash was the result of possible terrorism. They said they had no reason to believe it was, but that they were taking every precaution. "Because the country is on an orange alert and because Mississippi River bridges have been listed as possible terrorism targets, we are handling this matter with extreme caution," Mayor Francis Slay said. But he warned against jumping to conclusions.

On the other hand, the Post-Dispatch reports:

Two pilots whose crash landing into the Mississippi River caused a brief concern of terrorist attack were actually heroes who steered their doomed jet away from populated areas, the top FBI official at St. Louis said Wednesday. It was not terrorism, said Thomas Bush, the FBI special agent in charge, after a day's probe of the incident that happened about dusk Tuesday near the McKinley Bridge. "If this is not terrorism, it could easily be heroism," he added. full story

[Arkie2]

I wouldn't want to be an employee there!

[steplock]

This company also provides FLIGHT TRAINING SCHOOL

[tophat9000]

The men, identified as Saleem Iqbal, 34, and Mohammed Saleh, 44

I think there Norwegian ;>

[eno_]

The company is owned by one Tahir Cheema. Google up his name. He has been in trouble before.

[DudleyDoright]

Hey, the other one crashed near Toledo..

There is a big nuke plant (Davis-Besse, as I seem to recall) on the shore of Lake Erie about 15-20 miles east of Toledo...

Hmmmmm

[midwestjenny]

There have been 2 other small plane crashes in the last year in Missouri. Both crashes had victims with Arabic sounding names.

[valkyrieanne]

Very suspicious, IMO.

[DudleyDoright]

Hmmm. I was a tad premature. I knew a guy on the Ohio plane..

[Mamzelle]

Am curious about these planes--why jets? Regular prop aircraft is usually more economical, or am I wrong? A charter with jets is limited as to where it lands, is it not? Would like to know a little more about the charter craft.