HOUSTON -- Three people en route to Houston to pick up former President George H.W. Bush died Monday morning when their private jet clipped a light pole and crashed a minute away from landing in a thick fog at Houston's Hobby Airport, Local 2 reported.

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The former president, his spokesman Tom Freschette and a secret service agent were scheduled to travel to Ecuador for a business conference. They did not board the plane and their trip has been canceled, Freschette said.

"I was deeply saddened to learn of the plane crash this morning. I'd flown with this group before and know them well," Bush said through Freschette. "I join in sending heartfelt condolences to each and every member of their families."

The spokesman said the elder Bush was going Ecuador to speak at the Guayaquil Chamber of Commerce lecture series. Guayaquil, a port city, is Ecuador's main banking and business center.

Crash Kills 2 Pilots, Crewmember; Tollway Remains Closed

Officials said the Gulfstream jet, carrying three passengers, crashed at 6:23 a.m. near the toll road between South Wayside and Cullen, just south of the toll plaza near Highway 288. All lanes of traffic on the Sam Houston Tollway were shut down until 3 p.m. as emergency crews investigated and cleaned wreckage from the accident.

"We have accounted for three fatalities, we're confident that's all we're going to find," said Jack Williams, a district chief with the Houston Fire Department.

The names of the two pilots and a crewmember killed in the crash were not immediately identified. The flight originated from Dallas Love Field and the plane's registered owner is Jet Place Inc. of Tulsa, Okla., Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig said.

No other injuries have been reported. The cause of the crash is now under investigation.

Williams said the twin-engine Gulfstream jet, arriving from Dallas Love Field, apparently clipped a tall light tower at a Beltway 8 toll plaza, shearing off a wing. He said the severed wing rests near the base of the tower.

The district fire chief said firefighters found a trail of debris stretching about 1,000 feet from the light tower into a field north of the toll road.

Houston Airport System spokesman Roger Smith said the jet, which can carry up to 12 passengers, was approaching runway 4 at Hobby Airport when it went down.

Smith said the pilot didn't indicate the aircraft was in distress, and the landing was routine until communications abruptly stopped. Smith said visibility wasn't ideal with the foggy conditions, but takeoffs and landings as well as other regular flight operations at Hobby were unaffected.

Mark Rosenker, vice chairman the National Transportation Safety Board, said the "black box" flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder had been recovered, and appeared to be in good enough shape to read the data. The devices were being shipped to the agency's offices in Washington D.C. for analysis, he said.

Rosenker said the NTSB's 15-person investigation team would examine "a number of factors," including the condition of the aircraft, what the pilots were doing, the weather and technical issues.

He said standard toxicology tests would be performed on the bodies and FBI agents joined the investigation at the NTSB's request, as is routine, he said.

"We are treating this at this moment as a transportation accident. We have no reason to believe it is anything other than that at this moment," Rosenker said.

Jet Place Incorporated of Tulsa, Okla., is the registered owner of the Gulfstream G-1159-A, according to Herwig.

Robert Randall, operations manager with Jet Place, did not name the downed flight's crew but said they were two male pilots and a female flight attendant.

Randall said the private company has a fleet of 18 jets and employs about 150 people.

Witnesses Describe Watching Plane Fall From Sky

No drivers on the tollway were injured, but one car was hit with wing debris while another was hit with jet fuel, according to Williams.

A family of five, whose vehicle was damaged by falling debris, told Local 2 they were en route to Hobby Airport to catch a plane to New York City for the holidays.

"There was a bright flash of light. Debris started raining down all over the road, hitting the car and the windshield," John Kaufmann said.

The windshield on the Kaufmann family's van was shattered by a piece of falling debris within seconds of the plane crash. The 10-pound object landed on the floor of the passenger side of the van barely missing Kaufmann's wife and their three children.

"I thought maybe there was a gas explosion. I wasn't sure. I didn't really know what was going on. We just wanted to continue driving the car. The car had a flat tire and it was disabled, but we were just trying to drive away for safety and make sure everybody was OK," Kaufmann said.

Roseann Leijan considers herself lucky as jet fuel poured from the sky onto her car.

"The first thing that went through my mind was that had I been 500 feet on the other side of the toll plaza, then all of the debris and everything would have been showering down on top of me," Leijan said.

Workers at the toll plaza told officials they saw the plane clip the light pole and burst into flames.

"When I first heard the explosion and (my co-workers) yelling and screaming, I thought it hit us," tollbooth worker Eldon Briggs said.

Heavy thunderstorms that moved into northwest Harris County Monday morning did not affect the crash site until after 10 a.m.

Flight delays from 15 minutes to over two hours were reported at Hobby and Bush Intercontinental Airports due to the severe weather. The crash did not affect airport traffic.

Road Condition Information:

• Houston TranStar Real-Time Traffic Map


• Traffic Pulse Real-Time Traffic Map


• Traffic Section


• Houston Transtar


• Texas Dept. of Transportation Web site or call (800) 452-9292


• Harris County Office of Emergency Management Web site

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