Jet smashes into Aspen hillside, killing 18

<br>ASPEN, Colo. (AP) _ Investigators worked their way through hillsides littered with scorched wreckage on Friday to recover the bodies of 18 people aboard a twin-engine jet that crashed as it approached

Friday, March 30th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) _ Investigators worked their way through hillsides littered with scorched wreckage on Friday to recover the bodies of 18 people aboard a twin-engine jet that crashed as it approached this ski resort town.

The Gulfstream III from Burbank, Calif., rammed into the hillside Thursday night before diving across a culvert and striking another bluff just short of the runway.

Coroner's officials began removing the bodies of the victims before dawn Friday, police said. It could be two days before they are identified, Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis said. When asked whether any celebrities were aboard the plane, Braudis said he did not recognize any of the passengers' names.

Arnold Scott of the National Transportation Safety Board said the cockpit voice recorder had been recovered. Before the crash, the plane's crew told controllers they had the runway in sight, he said.

The crash sparked a giant fireball, witnesses said. Two dead passengers were still strapped to their seats and one was sprawled on a hillside amid the wreckage.

``All of a sudden the plane came overhead and before anybody could say `that plane is really low,' we heard a loud boom and saw a large fireball,'' Ron Harding told KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. ``We saw debris scattered down one hillside and up the other hillside. There was fire every place.

``It was just a terrible scene,'' said Harding, a Riverside, Calif., resident who was driving to dinner with his wife and four other people when they witnessed the crash.

Fifteen passengers and three crew were on board, said Allen Kenitzer, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Seattle. All 18 bodies were recovered, authorities said. The victims were not immediately identified.

Marc Foulkrod, president of Avjet Corporation in Burbank, Calif., which manages the jet for its owner, said Avjet caters to corporate clients and people in the entertainment industry but declined to say who was on the flight.

``We are in the process of notifying the families of these individuals,'' Foulkrod said. ``Our deepest and most heartfelt concern goes out to all of the families.''

Witnesses traveling along a highway near the crash said they were startled to see the low-flying plane make its way toward the airport.

Greg Reszel, a tourist from Indiana, told KCNC-TV the plane was traveling so slowly he thought it was a helicopter. He said it lurched and appeared to stall.

Al Kassa, who was traveling on the same road, told the station the plane was traveling about 50 feet over his car when it passed and then crashed.

``The noise was just so loud,'' he said. ``And then I just saw it going straight into the ground at about a 30-degree angle, and then it just blew up. I've been in a state of shock for the last few hours.''

The debris showed the plane lost its tail when it hit a hillside about 20 feet high. It fell apart as it plunged across a 200-foot culvert between the hill and the airport, then slammed into another bluff about 500 yards short of the runway.

Foulkrod, whose company manages the jet for Airborne Charter Inc., said it left from the Burbank airport, made a stop at Los Angeles International Airport, and then headed to Aspen. He said the owner, whom he wouldn't identify, was not on board.

Surrounded by Rocky Mountains towering as much as 3,500 feet above its lone runway, the airport warns approaching pilots that ``high rates of descent may be required due to terrain.'' The airport, about 230 miles west of Denver, has an elevation of 7,815 feet.

There were no distress calls before the crash, said Marie Munday, a spokeswoman for the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office.

The National Weather Service reported light snow in the area at the time of the crash. Visibility went from 10 miles to less than two miles in about 20 minutes just before the crash, forecasters said.

Avjet, which employs more than 100 people, says it has the largest Gulfstream charter fleet in the United States.