The Tribune

By DANA SMITH dsmith@tribunemedia.net INVESTIGATIONS into the cause of last Friday's Long Island plane crash are ongoing. Southern Air's nine-seater King Air aircraft crash landed at Deadman's Cay airport around 2.30pm. No serious injuries were reported and all nine passengers walked away from the plane alive, but "shaken up". The flight was enroute to Long Island from Nassau. Hubert Adderly, Flight Standards Inspectorate manager, said investigators looked at the aircraft on Saturday morning to gather information and conduct preliminary inquiries. "We are now compiling information," he said. "It's still too early to have any conclusive cause." Mr Adderly said it could take months to determine the cause of the crash. Nathaniel Gibbs, Southern Air general manager, confirmed investigations were on-going and said the company is not prepared to give a statement at this stage. Witnesses blamed faulty landing gear, describing how as the plane landed on the runway, the landing gear collapsed, sending the aircraft "swerving" across the tarmac before crashing into nearby bushes. This crash landing is the second for Southern Air since 2004. On October 22 of that year, a Southern Air 19-seater flight was forced to make an emergency landing in the sea off South Beach. It was enroute to Nassau from Cat Island when both of the plane's engines failed. Reports later surfaced that the plane ran out of fuel. None of the 10 passengers were seriously injured.