Investigation under way on small jet crash

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - British investigators were examining flight recorders for clues in the crash of a small jet taking off from an airport here that killed five Americans, including the president of a Georgia-based company. <br> <br> An airport spokesman said investigators had recovered two black-box flight information recorders from the Canadair Challenger executive jet, which crashed just after noon on Friday. <br> <br> Airport officials said all of the 175 flights scheduled to arrive at or depart from Birmingham, 110 miles north of London, on Saturday had been diverted to other airports. The airport said it would not reopen until Sunday at the earliest. <br> <br> The plane was carrying two top executives of the Duluth, Ga.-based agricultural equipment giant AGCO Corp as well as three American crewmembers. <br> <br> AGCO said its its president and chief executive officer, John Shumejda, 56, and its senior vice president of sales, Ed Swingle, 60, were killed. Both had attended a meeting in Coventry of AGCO&#39;s British operation. <br> <br> Georgia-based Epps Aviation said the three crew members were its employees Thomas Boydston, 51, Robert Norton, 58 and Timothy Vandevort, 41. <br> <br> AGCO Corp.&#39;s spokeswoman in Duluth, Molly Dye, described Shumejda and Swingle as good friends, ``respected men&#39;&#39; and ``superior business leaders&#39;&#39; who knew their customers and employees well. <br> <br> The cause of the crash was not known, although the British Broadcasting Corp. reported the plane clipped one of its wings on the ground during takeoff. <br> <br> ``I spoke to one or two people who saw the crash and apparently the plane rolled over to the left just as it took off,&#39;&#39; Gordon Stretch, who was driving into the airport&#39;s parking lot at the time of the crash, told the BBC. ``The plane is in two parts ... a complete burned out wreck.&#39;&#39;