Eight victims in jet crash had local ties
Four of the dead were executives for companies building a casino in Atlantic City.
ATLANTIC CITY - All eight victims killed in yesterday's horrific crash of a business jet in heavy winds in Minnesota were local residents, including a team of high-ranking executives working on the design of the massive $2.5 billion Revel Entertainment casino in Atlantic City.
The victims were Tishman Construction project manager Karen Sandland, 44, of Galloway, N.J.; three high-ranking Revel executives; two employees of APG International, a glass company based in Glassboro; and two pilots from Bethlehem, Pa., area.
All were aboard a Hawker 800, a twin-engine jet chartered through East Coast Jets of Allentown, which left Atlantic City International Airport at 8:13 a.m. and crashed as it attempted to land at Degner Regional Airport in Owatonna, Minn., about 10 a.m. local time.
The executives were on their way to Owatonna for meetings at Viracon, a glass manufacturer there, on possible glass exteriors for the new casino rising up under eight massive cranes along the Boardwalk at the north end of town, company officials said.
The jet crashed off Runway 30 while attempting to land during a terrific storm. The wreckage ended up strewn across a cornfield.
Atlantic City Mayor Scott Evans called the crash "a tragedy."
"Our hearts go out to them," Evans said.
The two dead from APG International were identified as chief operating officer Marc Rosenberg, a married father of two who lives in Margate, and assistant project manager Alan Barnett of Absecon.
At the Rosenberg home in Margate last night, an aunt of Patti Rosenberg's, the victim's wife, said the family was not ready to speak.
"It's too soon," the aunt said.
APG chairman Edward Zaucha said the company was in total shock.
"This has been a sad, sad day for all of us," Zaucha said.
Word of the tragedy spread quickly at the busy construction site on the Boardwalk, where concrete was being poured yesterday, and at Revel's nearby offices on Atlantic Avenue, where ashen-faced employees of Revel and Tishman, and local attorneys associated with the companies, walked in and out of the building, visibly shaken. Several Tishman employees stood outside, their heads in their hands.
East Coast Jets president Brad Cole said the two pilots killed were both Pennsylvania residents; Clark Keefer of Bethlehem, and Dan D'Amborsio, of Hellertown.
The names of the three dead Revel employees were not released.
Revel CEO Kevin DeSanctis, a well-liked executive on the Atlantic City scene lured to the Morgan Stanley company from Penn National Gaming in October 2006, spent the day sequestered in his office, on the phone dealing with the tragedy.
In an e-mailed statement issued to reporters last night, DeSanctis said the crash was "a heartbreak to all on the team."
"Everyone at Revel Entertainment is deeply saddened by today's tragedy," DeSanctis said. "The thoughts and prayers of our entire organization are with the family and friends of today's victims."
Daniel R. Tishman, chairman and chief executive officer of Tishman Construction Corp., said the victims were "several of our longtime colleagues and friends."
Sandland was the only Tishman employee on the flight, the company said.
Seven passengers died at the scene and the last one died at a local hospital, according to the Associated Press, which cited Sheriff Gary Ringhofer in Minnesota.
In Galloway, neighbors around Sandland's two-story townhouse with a well-kept flower bed of impatiens and hostas, said they knew her to drive up in a new black Mercedes-Benz convertible. She appeared to live alone.
"I'm just so distraught," said Catherine Kleissler, a neighbor. "She looked like a nice businesswoman. She seemed like a very peaceful, happy woman."
The tragedy echoed another incident that struck upper echelons of casino management on Oct. 10, 1989, when Stephen Hyde, then CEO of Donald Trump's three Atlantic City casinos, died in a helicopter crash. Two other Trump executives were also killed in that crash.
Yesterday's flight began in Allentown, where East Coast Jets is based.
South Jersey Transportation Authority spokeswoman Sharon Gordon said the jet landed at Atlantic City International at 7:10 a.m., and the pilot did not refuel or request any other services.
"It was a quick turnaround," Gordon said.
The jet took off from Atlantic City International without any problems for the trip to Owatonna, a town of 25,000, according to airport employees.
Several of the passengers had driven themselves to the airport and left their cars parked nearby.
But when the plane got to Minnesota, it encountered a severe storm that had battered the southern section of the state.
An hour before the crash, the National Weather Service reported a 72 m.p.h. wind gust in Owatonna.
Cameron Smith, a mechanic at the Minnesota airport, said he spoke by radio with the jet's pilot just minutes before the crash. The pilot was about to land and was asking where he should park for fuel, Smith said.
He ran to the crash scene to see if anyone could be helped, but saw only a long skid path and debris that he described as "shredded."
Quinn Johnson, an assistant manager at a restaurant about three miles from the airport, described it as a "rumbling, screechy type of noise."
Both Smith and Johnson said the crash happened after the worst of the storm had passed, with only light rain remaining.
The plane had been scheduled to land at 9:42 a.m., then take off at 11:40 a.m. for Crossville, Tenn.
The Revel casino project, the company's first casino venture, has been slated to open in the summer of 2010. Construction began in November on the site, just north of Showboat. It is one of four super casinos planned for the city over the next four years.