A full investigation was slated to begin yesterday, one day after a private Lear jet crashed on approach near Grand Bahama International Airport, killing everyone on board, including a prominent pastor and his wife.
All passengers on the flight died, with nine people reportedly on board, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said.
The jet was carrying Dr. Myles Munroe and his wife, Ruth, according to Kelley Jackson, a spokeswoman from the Andrew J. Young Foundation.
The Bahamas Tribune reported that the plane struck a crane at the Grand Bahama Ship Yard, exploding on impact and crashing into the ground near a junkyard area.
The Department of Civil Aviation reported that the plane was a Lear 36 executive jet which departed the Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) for the Grand Bahama International Airport.
Munroe, 60, was a pastor and motivational speaker, the founder of Bahamas Faith Ministries International Fellowship. Ruth served as co-senior pastor.
Senior vice president and pastor Richard Pinder also died in the crash.
Members of Munroe’s organization sobbed and wailed when they learned of the crash.
The group was traveling to the Bahamas to attend a Global Leadership Forum arranged by Munroe. That event will continue, according to a statement posted to Munroe’s Facebook page.
“This is what Dr. Munroe would have wanted,” it said. “Please keep his family and the ministry in prayers.”
William M. Wilson, the president of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Munroe was a student and later adjunct professor, released a statement after Munroe’s death.
“His energy and enthusiasm for imparting Spirit Empowered Christianity to new generations was contagious,” Wilson said in the statement.
A representative of the Bahamas Air accident investigation and prevention unit confirmed the crash to ABC News, but declined to identify the victims.
The cause of the crash is unknown.
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