Plane Crash Kills 5 College Students

A small plane crashed while trying to land in the fog, killing five students from Indiana University's school of music, a university spokeswoman said Friday.

"This would be a tragedy for the school," spokeswoman Susan Williams said. "It's an important school. Some of the best music students in the world come here."

Teary-eyed students consoled each other outside the School of Music administration building.

The victims' names were not immediately released, but CBS affiliate WLFI-TV in Lafayette reports that officials have identified the students as: Georgina H. Joshi, 24; Zachary Joseph Novak, 25; Robert Clayton Samels, 24; Garth A. Eppley, 25; and Christy Bates Carducci, 27.

The single-engine Cessna disappeared from the radar shortly before midnight Thursday as it headed to Bloomington's Monroe County Airport from Lafayette, about 90 miles away. The pilot activated the airport lights from the cockpit but never arrived, State Police Sgt. Joe Watts said.

Several 911 callers described "the spit and sputtering of an airplane," said Mike Cornman, deputy fire chief in Van Buren Township. Some also reported a loud boom.

"It's common for us to hear a light aircraft and even larger ones. And yes, you can definitely tell, they're low enough you can actually hear. Last night, they actually saw the lights on the plane. It was close enough that when they looked out, even though there was heavy fog, they saw the glow of the lights on the plane and immediately heard a crash sound," Sam Mason, owner of a mobile home park near the airport, told CBS affiliate WISH-TV in Indianapolis.

The wreckage was found upside-down just south of the airport before dawn Friday. Rain and fog hindered efforts to search for the wreckage by helicopter.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the accident, Cornman said.