Times Staff Report

MUNSTER | Two men -- one from Indiana and one from Illinois -- were killed Friday when a small plane leaving Lansing Municipal Airport crashed in a steady rain about 7:20 p.m. on Calumet Avenue, just south of 45th Avenue in Munster.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed there were two people onboard, and both had died. No cars and no buildings were struck, and no one on the ground was hurt in the crash about a mile east of the Lansing airport.

Highland resident Angee Garcia was driving south on Calumet Avenue and was near the Community Veterans Memorial when she saw two "little lights."

Garcia said the plane crashed about 30 feet from her car before she swerved into the opposite lane. She and her 10-year-old daughter, Desiree, were left staring at the plane's underside.

"There were no flames; it didn't explode or anything," Garcia said. "But it was literally (a) straight nose dive into the ground."

Calumet Township residents Terri and Pat Booth were driving nearby and tried to help. Terri is a nurse and former paramedic, and Pat is a Lake Ridge firefighter.

"We really didn't see it happen, but we were first on the scene," Terri Booth said. "I went to the passenger side because he (the passenger) was half hanging out of the plane. He was unresponsive and didn't have a pulse.

"My husband went to the pilot, and he was wedged in there really tight and was" badly hurt, Terri Booth said.

Said witness Pam Groen, of Dyer, "I saw the pilot hanging out of the plane, and he was kind of trapped."

"I heard the sputtering of the plane," said Susan Kwasman, a resident of the nearby Cobblestone subdivision. "It sounded like it stopped -- and I heard nothing. I was shocked."

A check of the plane's tail number on the FAA's registry site listed the craft as a Beech 58 fixed-wing multi-engine craft built in 1975 and registered to SL Air International, a corporation based in Hinsdale, Ill. It was last issued a certificate in January 2006.

Reached at the business Friday night, Steve Leaven identified himself as the sole owner of company, which also is known as Carborn Inc.

Leaven said the plane had taken off from Lansing Municipal and was returning when it crashed. He would not comment on whether the plane was coming back because of any mechanical problems.

Chicago Business Air at Lansing Municipal charters flights in and out of the airport. Three employees still in the building at 9 p.m. Friday would not comment about the crash.

Lansing Municipal does not have a flight tower. Planes flying in and out of the airport use instrument flight rules and their radios.

Names of the crash victims were not available from authorities Friday night, and Leaven also declined to identify the people on board, but said they were not employees of SL Air International.

"It's just a real tough time for everybody," he said.

Lake County Coroner David Pastrick said he would release the men's identities after he located and spoke to their families.

Munster police Sgt. Steve Kovacik said both men were 27. He said one was from South Bend and the other was from Manhattan, Ill.

The front of the plane came to rest facing north to northeast on the 9900 block of Calumet, with parts of the plane scattered about 75 feet behind the tail. The rest of the plane was in the grass.

The front end of the plane was badly damaged, and emergency personnel covered the cockpit and the victims as they worked just minutes after the crash.

The smell of fuel was strong, and shortly before 8 p.m. fire crews started hosing fire-retardant foam around the area.

The crash is being investigated by local authorities, the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, with the NTSB taking the lead.

Federal investigators had arrived and at 10:45 p.m. were preparing to move the plane to a hangar at Lansing Municipal Airport. They said they would hold a news conference this afternoon, but it might take six months to a year to determine the exact cause of the crash.

"It appeared the point of impact was in the grass area between the parking lot and the roadway," Kovacik said. "After the impact, it ended up in the roadway," Kovacik said.

"We were very fortunate with the volume of traffic in this parking lot (at Fitness Pointe health club) and the traffic on Calumet Avenue" no one on the ground was hurt, Kovacik said.

Times staff members Christine Kraly, Carolyn Thompson, Hillary Smith, Matt Erickson, Bill Thornbro and Mark Fitton contributed to this report.