Bombardier Mourns Crash Victims

Bombardier staff is mourning the deaths of two crewmembers killed Tuesday in the crash of a Challenger 604.

Experimental test pilot Bryan Irelan and Flight Test Engineer David Riggs died when the 1994 jet crashed while taking off for a routine flight test mission from runway 19R at Wichita's Mid-Continent Airport. A third crewmember, experimental test pilot Eric Fiore, is in the burn unit of a Wichita hospital in critical condition.

The aircraft serial number 5991, appeared on the Canadian registry as C-FTBZ. It participated in the Challenger 604 development program.

Bombardier officials flew from New Orleans to Wichita late yesterday on hearing of the accident. NTSB investigators on-scene hope recovery of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the wreckage will help pinpoint the cause of the crash, which occurred at about 3 p.m. (CT) in VFR conditions.