I just heard, US Senator Paul Wellstone and his wife and daughter along with pilot and other passagers were killed in crash of a King Air. My condolenses to his family for their loss.Charles

Can anyone confirm the ICAO identifier of the airport they were landing at? I wanna see what kind of approaches are availiable there...

What about all these senators dying in small plane crashes. This one is second in the last 2 years ...Michael J.

It's being reported as Eveleth, Minnesota. KEVM

With the elections right around the corner, it makes you wonder if this was really an accident.

>With the elections right around the corner, it makes you >wonder if this was really an accident. Well, lets hear your conspiracy theories...

If its conspiracy theories you want go to : http://english.pravda.ru/main/ then click on fourms/politics. I like to read diffent internet sites from around the world. The Pravda fourms are quite anti-American and quite anti-Israel. Amazing since the Russians are " our friends". Matt

I don't have any theories, I just think stuff like this seems pretty suspicious with the mid-terms right around the corner. Alot of dirty things happen in the world of politics...

Yes a lot of a dirty things can happen, but killing off a politician is not one them. Nothing is gained by it, even if it is an election cycle. If that was the case politicians would be dropping like flies, so to speak (and with all due respect to his family). And, plus it would be extremely difficult to hide an assasination. Regards

Well, no conspiracy theory with the crash of Senator Wellstone, it probably due to ice buildup on the plane, causing more dragg. NTSB is investigating this matter. Not everthing is due to a conspiracy. Charles

I heard there is no IAP's for the airport they were flying into. Can anyone confirm this? If so, then it probably wasn't ice, but just plane old stupidity! They had 500' ceilings the news was reporting.

I also doubt that ice was the cause. The approach to Runway 27 at KEVM is a non-precision, VOR DME type, according to Jeppeson's. The final approach seems pretty steep and I'm guessing that the terrain is hilly. The minimum descent altitude is 1900 MSL/531 AGL, and I've heard reports that ceilings were as low as 400. Seems like a probable case of controlled flight into terrain.

There was freezing rain and light snow reported with reduced visibility.The airport they chose to go into had a VOR/GPS approach and a runway that was less than 5000ft long (4694ft)13 miles away (a 15 minute drive?) was Hibbing (KHIB)airport that has a full ILS and a runway that is 6758ft long.Ed Weber a.k.a tallpilot

Good point Ed, an ILS on a morning like that would've been a lot less nerve wracking.Yep, it was a nasty wx morning here in KMSP...low clouds, drizzle (not freezing type), and some fog. I've never been to Eveleth, so I plugged it into FS2K2 and flew an approach to RWY 27 (don't have an approach plate, so I took off on RWY 09 flew out five miles, did a course reversal, then flew back in to RWY 27)..here are some shots:http://images.andale.com/f2/109/127/632235...1743_Image7.jpg"CAVOK" on a apx 2 nm final at apx 400'agl.http://images.andale.com/f2/109/127/632235...2298_Image6.jpgCockpit view.http://images.andale.com/f2/109/127/632235...1096_Image8.jpgSame position with clouds at 500' and vis 1 nm.http://images.andale.com/f2/109/127/632235...0518_Image9.jpgCockpit view.http://images.andale.com/f2/109/127/632235...369_Image11.jpgJust inside of a mile out, and starting to see the runway.Don't really know what any of this shows, I was just curious as to what the crew was in for.later,BBall---------------------Capt. William "BBall" BallBoeing 757, Northwest AirlinesSenior Editorwww.frugalsworld.com

Hi Bill,What is shows is that an ILS and a longer runway (especially with the possibility of a slippery runway) would have been a better choice.I just wonder how much pressure the customer put on the charter company/pilot to go into that airport. In the same situation as PILOT IN COMMAND, I would have (and have)told the customer that I would not go into a particular airport or situation.Take care,Ed Weber a.k.a tallpilot