KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A logistics company in Kansas City is the one that owned and operated the plane that went down in the St. Louis area early Tuesday morning.
Online, it boasts 30+ daily departures and has been in business for over 50 years.
Central Air Southwest is a company with several offices in Missouri, including Kansas City and Mosby.
The pilot of their small cargo plane has been identified as Edward Ruhbeck of Spanish Lake. He was the only person on board when the plane went down.
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The Aero Commander 500B aircraft owned by Kansas City-based charter company Central Air Southwest took off around 12:20 a.m., according to flight tracking data. The plane appeared to turn around almost immediately and attempted to return to the runway, but crashed about 1,500 feet short.
Authorities said the wreckage was not discovered until about three hours later. The airport’s control tower was closed at the time of the crash. Police say they got reports of a missing plane around 3 a.m.
The NTSB is expected to lead the investigation.
FOX2 in St. Louis reports this isn’t the first crash involving a Central Air Southwest aircraft. Since 2005, and involving an Aero Commander 500B aircraft, other deadly crashes happened in 2014 in Chicago, Ill., 2008 in Tulsa, Ok. and 2005 in Gaylord, Mi.
FOX4 went to the address listed for its Kansas City office, but no one was available for comment. We also went to the Mosby location and were told ownership was out of town.
