Cargo Plane Crash Near Sacramento Kills Three
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this morning with a spectacular cargo plane crash that sparked a massive fire near Sacramento, California last night. The plane was owned by Emery Worldwide and it went down shortly after taking off last night from Mather Air Field. The plane crashed in an automobile junkyard, sparking this huge blaze you see. Let's get more details on just what happened last night. CNN's Don Knapp is in Rancho Cordova near the crash site this morning. Don, we understand the pilot reported a problem before this crash.</s>DON KNAPP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Leon. Just about 7:30 Pacific time last night, that DC-8 owned by Emery lifted off the runway here with a full cargo and was trying to gain some altitude. The pilot -- apparently, the pilot radioed the tower, according to the sheriff's department. He was having some trouble with the cargo. It may have been shifting, the plane without balance. He turned around 360 degrees and came back and attempted to land. Apparently, he fell short of the runway. He landed in an area -- in a light industrial area that is full of some used cars, some wrecked cars, wrecking yards, some light industrial buildings. There were a lot of flames. A witness passing by said that he saw the plane belly land, he saw the flames come up around. He saw the plane come through the flames and saw the nose of the plane, the cockpit pointing up in the air. And the plane sat there for a while, wavered, and then the flames engulfed the plane. On board that airplane, three crew members: a pilot, a copilot and a flight engineer. All of them perished in the crash, according to Sacramento County Sheriff spokesman, Lieutenant John McGinness.</s>JOHN MCGINNESS, SACRAMENTO CO., SHERIFF DEPT.: ... very early on because of our own helicopter being in the area so quickly, it was readily obvious that there was no potential to save the victims, and it was simply a recovery effort. And that has not been undertaken because we're going to leave the evidence in place. In fact, that's our -- really our entire mission at this point is just to keep the scene as uncontaminated as possible until the federal authorities can get here.</s>KNAPP: Sometime after daylight we expect those federal authorities to get here and take a look at the area. The bodies remain out there in the field until they can complete their investigation. And so it looks like this crash will have to be explained somehow, but apparently there were some problems with the cargo as the plane took off. Reporting live, Don Knapp, CNN, Rancho Cordova, California.</s>CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Don.