Two pilots and a passenger were killed when their Rockwell Sabreliner 265 crashed about 20 minutes after taking off from Oxford-University Airport in Mississippi on Saturday. The twinjet was on a Part 91 flight to Hamilton-Marion County Airport in Alabama, its home base, when it went down in remote wooded terrain.
After a three-hour flight from Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield, Colorado, the airplane arrived in Oxford at about 2:45 p.m. local time, where it offloaded several passengers. It took off at about 3 p.m. and crashed at 3:20 p.m. According to flight tracking data, the aircraft was filed for 11,000 feet and was at that altitude when ATC lost contact. Reportedly, the crew told ATC they were having electrical problems.
The crash is the second fatal accident worldwide of a business jet this year. FAA records show that the 1980 Sabreliner, S/N465-45, is registered as N265DS to Classic Aviation in Guin, Alabama.
Local officials identified the three victims as pilot Tommy Nix, his wife Merline, and copilot Jarrod Holloway. One report said the “airplane went out of control” before crashing. Specific weather data was not immediately available, but local officials said there were no storms in the area at the time of the crash. At press time, the NTSB had not released any information.