10/26/02 @ 10:44 pm

The Latest on the Plane Crash That Killed Sen. Paul Wellstone

Without a cockpit data recorder or voice recorder, officials investigating the crash of Senator Paul Wellstone's plane will likely have to rely more on witness accounts of the accident.

The national Transportation Safety Board and the FBI began their first full day at the crash site. The plane went down in a densely-wooded marshland in northeastern Minnesota. People who live near the crash site say the plane was flying fairly low.

One witness said, "I didn't see smoke or anything, but it was only a hundred feet above my house, and it did sound like he was backing off the throttle."

Wellstone, his wife, his daughter, and five others died in Friday morning's crash. There was freezing rain and 2 1/2 miles of visibility at the time of the crash. The NTSB says there was a intense fire after the crash.

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