Two killed in crash of small plane registered to Pat Robertson

GROTON, Conn. -- A Learjet registered to religious broadcaster Pat Robertson crashed in Long Island Sound while flying in heavy fog Friday, killing both pilots, authorities said. All three passengers escaped without serious injury.

Robertson was not aboard.

The twin-engine plane went down a half-mile short of the runway at Groton-New London Airport. Authorities said the passengers were able to get out on their own and were pulled from the water and taken to the hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.

The plane was registered to Virginia-based Robertson Asset Management. The company is owned by Robertson and is separate from the Christian Broadcasting Network, spokeswoman Angell Vasko said.

She said Robertson was not on the plane and rents it out because he uses it infrequently.

"We're still trying to figure out who was on the plane," she said. "It's not Dr. Robertson" or anyone "related to CBN or related to Dr. Robertson's individual businesses."

The Coast Guard said the plane took off from Norfolk, Va., and stopped in Atlantic City, N.J., to drop off two passengers before heading to Connecticut. State Transportation Department spokesman Chris Cooper said those on board were believed to be headed to a golf tournament at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket.

The bodies of the two victims were pulled from the water by the Coast Guard, Capt. Peter Boynton said.

Police said the cause of the crash was unclear.

Rachel Waszkelewicz said she heard the crash and ran out of her house and onto her dock, but it was too foggy to see, so she called out to a group of lobstermen.

"Everybody jumped in their boats," she said. "You could hear voices. I don't know if it was from the plane or if it was boaters yelling to them."

Dick Sawyer, who lives in the neighborhood, said, "You could barely see past your hand at the time." Five minutes later, he said, the fog lifted just enough to reveal the jet in the water.