Bad Weather Cited During Plane Crash That Killed World Harvest Church Minister

Light to moderate icing conditions were reported near the small town in Kansas where a Cessna business jet crashed in October that was carrying a minister who headed a church on the Wildomar/Murrieta border.

Pilot reports in the area indicated the ice conditions, as well as a northeast wind at 12 knots and light rain, existed at the time the multi-engine turbofan Cessna Citation plunged nose down Oct. 18 in Derby, Kan. Traveling minister Dr. Edward Dufresne and the pilot were both killed, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Dufresne had departed from Wichita, Kan. at midmorning and was bound for New Braunfels, Texas. The aircraft apparently ran into trouble shortly after being cleared to climb 23,000 feet. The pilot then made abrupt turns to his right and left with data showing the airplane descended to 14,600 feet before resuming its climb to 15,200 feet, the NTSB's report read.

The airplane suddenly turned left and descended, losing radar and radio contact. Witnesses reported seeing the plane below the clouds "in a nose down vertical dive," the NTSB reported. One witness told authorities that after the impact he saw a fireball about 500 feet high followed by a column of smoke, the federal report read.

Most of the wreckage was located in or near the crater-like crash site but the outboard portion of the left wing and left aileron, the pilot- controlled airfoil at the edge of the wing, was spotted 3,000 feet west of the site, the NTSB reported.

The NTSB's report did not fault the icy conditions for the crash but reported it was there the day Dufresne's plane crashed. Dufresne ministered at the World Harvest Church at the Wildomar/Murrieta line and was president of Dufresne Ministries.

His wife, Nancy, pastors the World Harvest Church. The aircraft was registered to Dufresne, Inc. based in Murrieta, according to the NTSB. --City News Service