Second Kalitta Air 747 Freighter Crashes

Rescue workers inspect the wreckage of a Boeing 747 that crashed in Madrid, near Bogota, Monday, July 7, 2008. The cargo plane fell after taking off from Bogota's airport with a load of flowers on route to Miami. The eight crew members survived but two people who lived on the ranch where the plane crashed were killed. Credit: AP Photo/William Fernando Martinez

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A rose-laden U.S. cargo plane headed for Miami crashed before dawn Monday near Colombia's capital, killing a father and son in their home on the ground, Colombian aviation officials said.

None of the plane's eight U.S. crew members were reported dead, although a hospital director said one was in serious condition. It was the second time in six weeks that a Boeing 747 flown by Ypsilanti, Michigan-based Kalitta Air has crashed.

U.S. investigators were en route to Colombia to assist in a government inquiry into the cause of the crash, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said.

The plane's crew told air traffic controllers early Monday that one of its engines had caught fire and radio contact was lost seconds later, said Donald Tascon, deputy director of Colombia's civil aviation agency.

At 3:50 am (4:50 a.m. EDT; 0850 GMT), the jet attempted an emergency landing and crashed onto a ranch about 15 miles (25 kilometers) northwest of Bogota, said aviation officials and Diego Humberto Sicard, mayor of Madrid, the small village hit.

747 broke apart during landing

The plane split apart and its tail smashed into a ranch home, killing Pedro Suarez, 50, and his 13-year-old son Edwin, according to the mayor and aviation official Tascon.

The plane had stopped in Bogota to pick up flowers — one of Colombia's biggest exports — and was scheduled to land in Miami, Kalitta Air Vice President Pete Sanderlin said.

"All of the crew on board had various injuries, from slight to more serious," he told The Associated Press.

Two crew members were treated at a Madrid hospital, while six others were sent to the Central Police Hospital in Bogota. One, identified as Joseph Kendall, had his spleen removed and was recuperating, hospital director Col. Nader Lujan told reporters.

Kalitta had been operating the plane for another airline, Centurion Air Cargo, Sanderlin said. A woman who answered the phone at Centurion's office in Miami referred questions to Kalitta.

Five investigators from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, will join other Americans from the Federal Aviation Administration, aircraft-maker Boeing Co. and engine-maker Pratt & Whitney in assisting the Colombian probe, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said from Washington. Pratt & Whitney is a unit of United Technologies Corp.

Another Kalitta-operated Boeing 747 crashed and broke apart in Brussels, Belgium, on May 25 as pilots tried to abort a takeoff, U.S. and Belgian authorities have said. All five crew members survived that incident, too, although four were slightly injured.
The crash also marked the second time two days that a cargo line based at Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti has crashed in Latin America.

A DC-9-15 freighter operated by USA Jet Airlines crashed early Sunday while nearing the airport in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico. The pilot of the plane, 46-year-old Lon McIntosh of Middletown, Ohio, died, according to his family and Mexican officials.

Associated Press writers Sarah Larimer in Miami and David N. Goodman in Detroit contributed to this report.

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