All 5 Killed In Plane Crash Were IU Grad Students

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- All five people who were killed in the crash of a single-engine plane late Thursday -- including the pilot -- were graduate students of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the university said.

The five were returning to Bloomington from a community concert rehearsal in West Lafayette when the Cessna 206 plane crashed in foggy conditions about 500 yards south of the Monroe County Airport's runway, officials said.

The school identified the five as Georgina H. Joshi, 24, of South Bend; Chris Carducci, 27, a native of Monroe, Mich.; Garth A. Eppley, 25, of Wabash; Zachary J. Novak, 25, of Anderson; and Robert Samels, 24, of Medina, Ohio.

Officials said Joshi was the pilot.

"The entire Indiana University family is very saddened by this tragedy," IU President Adam Herbert said during a news conference late Friday afternoon.

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Images: Crash Scene
Video: Officials: Crash Happened In Heavy Fog
Read: Biographies Of The Students

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Three of the five were voice students, and the other two were enrolled in a choral conducting program, Herbert said.

Officials said no one else was aboard the plane. Preliminary examinations indicated that the five died instantly of blunt force trauma, a coroner's office representative said.

After the plane disappeared from radar about 11:40 p.m. Thursday, authorities and people who live near the crash site searched for the plane through much of the night. It was found in a wooded area at about 4:15 a.m. Friday, 6News' Julie Pursley reported.

Authorities said the pilot activated the lights at the airport from the cockpit but never landed. Officials told 6News that people began called 911 to report a plane in distress and to report hearing a crash.

Bob Brummett said he heard the plane and the crash. He and his wife joined the search, along with emergency crews.

"I awoke to a loud throttle, where somebody was giving a lot of throttle to a plane -- just real loud and then, thump," Brummett said. "There was no smoke, no fire. That was one of the things that made it really hard."

Police said the plane was found thanks to an emergency locating device in the plane.

"The crews started the ground searches based on those calls and tried to track it down," said Van Buren Township deputy fire Chief Mike Cornman. "Due to the fog, we couldn't get helicopters in the air. The Civil Air Patrol was able to come in and ... pinpointed an area."

Officials said they believe the plane crashed vertically, nose down. Emergency crews used all-terrain vehicles to reach the crash site, which is on airport property.

The FAA and NTSB are sending crews to the site of the crash, working to determine the cause of the crash.