Small plane crashes near Collegedale, killing five

<p>A small corporate airplane taking off from the Collegedale airport crashed about a mile-and-a-half north of the airport, killing five on board.</p><p>The twin-engine Cessna 421 was registered to the Georgia-Cumberland Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, based in Calhoun, Ga., said Hamilton County Sheriff John Cupp.</p><p>The co-pilot survived and was taken to a Chattanooga hospital, but the four passengers and the pilot were killed in the crash, Cupp said.</p><p>Pastor Ed Wright of the Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church said the people on the plane were church officials and pastors who had attended a conference Thursday morning at his church.</p><p>Neither authorities or church officials released the names of those on board. The Georgia-Cumberland Conference had no immediate comment.</p><p>The plane was headed for Knoxville and went down around 1:30 p.m. EST in a thicket of trees. Collegedale Municipal Airport manager Frank Zarski said the plane crashed because of engine failure.</p><p>Collegedale is a rural, mountainous area about 15 miles northeast of downtown Chattanooga.</p>