By Tom Weber, KWMU/AP
St. Louis, MO – A small jet crashed Wednesday morning around 7:00, just after taking off from the Downtown Parks Airport in Cahokia.
It crashed in a farm field in Millstadt and burst into flames. Emergency crews arrived quickly and put the flames out.
Donald Schram lives near where the crash happened and was reading his newspaper when he heard the plane. "It was too low to be any normal flight going over the house," he said.
"So I ran out the door to see where it went and when I got out the door I could see the smoke out the field, right out my front door.
"I was going to go call 911 and by this time, I saw the neighbor coming out with his four-wheeler and he had already called them and I could hear the sirens by then. The sheriff's [deputies] were there in two or three minutes."
Four people were on board and survived, one person was airlifted to a St. Louis hospital. He is in fair condition. No word yet on the cause of the crash.