Plane crashes in Montana killing 17: Reports

LOS ANGELES: A plane crashed in Butte, Montana, killing some 17 people, mostly children, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.

The plane, a single engine turboprop, was heading from Orvilla, California to Bozeman, Montana, but at some point made a detour for Butte, where it attempted to land, said a preliminary FAA report.

It crashed yesterday 150 metres short of the runway, with 17 people confirmed dead by the FAA.

Most of the victims were children who were heading for a skiing trip in Bozeman, a reporter for the Montana Standard newspaper told CNN.

Other reports said the plane encountered strong winds before the accident.

Pictures from the accident scene showed towering flames shooting up behind a cemetery near Butte airport.

A witness of the crash that took one of the pictures, who identified herself as Martha Guidoni, said "we watched this plane just take a nosedive right into the cemetery."

She and her husband rushed to the scene of the crash to see if anybody could be helped, but said: "We were too late. There was nothing to help."