THE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Sen. Wellstone Dies in Plane Crash

Pilot Don Sipola, said visibility in the area at the time was 2 1/2 miles, well above the one-mile minimum for a standard instrument landing. He said the crash site was south of the normal approach path, so the plane must have deviated "for unknown and unexplained reasons."..."Wellstone stood up for the little guy," added AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "He was tireless and unapologetic for championing the rights of working men and women -- even when he stood alone, and he often did.

Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., died in a plane crash Friday along with seven others.

At the site, FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said there was no indication the crash was related to terrorism. He also said it may take time to recover the bodies....There were early reports that Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., might have been on the plane, since he was campaigning in Minnesota for Wellstone. That rumor was quickly dispelled

Sen. Wellstone Dies in Plane Crash

The twin-engine private plane went down about 10 a.m. in freezing rain and light snow near the Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport, about 175 miles north of Minneapolis.

U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone dies in plane crash

his twin-engine campaign plane, groping through snow and fog, crashed into a bog while landing in northeastern Minnesota. ...There was no hint of trouble aboard the plane, no call for help.

Los Angeles Times - Senator, family die in plane crash

"The plane called in on the (local radio frequency) and (the pilot) said he was inbound for Runway 2-7," said JoAnn Sipola, who works at Taconite Aviation Inc., a maintenance facility at the airport.She said that a few moments later, air traffic controllers in Duluth called and said the plane had disappeared from radar. ..At their request, Gary Ulman, who owns the maintenance facility, got in his own private plane and flew east looking for possible wreckage....The Beech A-100 that Wellstone was flying in was built in 1989 and was registered to Beech Transportation of Eden Praire, Minn. Records indicate no prior mishaps and no history of unusual problems.

Senator, family members killed in Minnesota plane crash

The plane went down in snowy, frozen rain and then burst into flames ...The weather in the Eveleth area was so bad hours after the crash that a 12-person National Transportation Safety Board team was to fly from Washington into Duluth instead of Eveleth....Fellow liberal Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, said from Minneapolis -- where he had been campaigning for Wellstone and others -- that his colleague "was a man of enormous ability" with "a passion for the good things for people."

Two minutes before crash, plane was already drifting

The flight, which left the Twin Cities at 9:37 a.m. Friday, had been routine until its final minutes, according to a reconstruction of the flight based on radar data reviewed by investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board....Something changed in the next 60 seconds, because at 10:19 a.m. the twin-engine aircraft began drifting slightly to the south, radar showed....Megen Williams agonizes over not calling 911 when she heard the sound she now believes was the plane on its way down....The aircraft seemed to be running normally, she said, but sounded closer than most. She didn't see which direction it was traveling, or how far it was from her home. But she remembers hearing silence after the plane passed her house, as if the engines had cut off.

Plume of smoke marked plane's wreckage for pilot on search mission

Ulman said weather conditions were "good enough for the approach, probably two to 2 1/2 miles of visiblity."...FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said, "On approach, there was a discussion about approach to the airport. It was on approach when we lost contact with it at 10:20 a.m.''

Minn. Sen. Wellstone Dies in Crash

Last year, Wellstone, disappointed some civil rights and civil liberties activists by voting for legislation broadening the government's authority to conduct wiretaps in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Sen. Wellstone Dies in Plane Crash

Wellstone had pledged to stay for no more than two terms, but last year, he announced he would be running again. In February, he announced he had been diagnosed with a mild form of multiple sclerosis but he said it wouldn't stop his campaign.

Vigil Held For Sen. Wellstone

Thousands of people are gathered at the state Capitol in Minnesota this evening, remembering Paul Wellstone. They're holding up candles, green Wellstone signs and green daisies. In the middle of the crowd stands the famous green bus that Wellstone rode on the campaign trail.