By AP/KWMU
St. Louis, MO – St. Charles County authorities say two men killed in Tuesday night's crash of a small corporate jet west of St. Louis are the top executive of the air charter company and an employee.
The dead are Tahir Cheema, of Toledo, Ohio, and Eko Pinardi, of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Cheema is the president and CEO of Toledo-based Grand Aire Express. The company says Pinardi was a pilot with the company.
Grand Aire says in a statement that Cheema was flying the plane when it went down shortly after taking off from an airport in Chesterfield.
The wreckage was found several miles away on Howell Island in the Missouri River.
Federal investigators are probing what caused the crash.