Crashed jet moved from house to South Bend Airport

SOUTH BEND – On Tuesday, crews removed that private jet from the South Bend home where it crashed two days ago.

The plane crashed into three different homes about halfway down the block on Iowa Street late Sunday afternoon.

Crews have been out there around the clock, but around 7 a.m. Tuesday, they started putting straps on the Hawker Beechcraft Premier jet.

Around 11 a.m., a crane lifted a huge piece of the jet off the house and onto a flat bed truck.

That flat bed pulled out of there shortly before noon and headed over to South Bend Regional Airport.

What’s left of the plane is going to a secure location there so a team of investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, the airplane manufacturer, engine manufacturer and others can examine it and try to figure out what caused the plane to crash.

We know the pilot said over radio he was having electrical problems.

It was extremely windy and very cold for the move on Tuesday.

South Bend Police Lt. Gene Eyster told WSBT that did not affect lifting the plane from the house and getting it onto the flat bed because the plane was never really that high in the air.

But Eyster also said the cold and wind were making it absolutely brutal for police officers, firefighters, investigators and other crews out there trying to get the plane out of the house. 

There were also concerns there could still be jet fuel left in that plane. Crews told us on Monday they removed all the jet fuel from the basement of the home where the plane landed, but right now, they have to assume there’s still fuel inside the aircraft and take necessary precautions because of that. 

Former Oklahoma University quarterback Steve Davis, 60; and 58-year-old Wesley Caves of Tulsa, Oklahoma, were both on the plane and were killed. Two others onboard and a person on the ground were injured.