Officials assess response to crash that killed 5 students

A bouquet of flowers marks the pit in the ground made when a plane slammed into the muddy earth at speeds exceeding 150 miles per hour, claiming the lives of five IU students. \nRobert Samels, Zachary Novak, Garth Eppley, Georgina Joshi and Chris Carducci were killed when the six-seat Cessna flown by Joshi crashed during a final approach for landing at the Monroe County Airport. The five IU Jacobs School of Music students were returning home from a community choir rehearsal in Lafayette. When the plane disappeared from radar around 11:40 p.m., a rescue operation followed bringing together local emergency services. \nA day after the Federal Aviation Administration released a preliminary report on the fatal crash a half-mile south of the airport, those responsible for leading the recovery operation met Thursday night in a conference room at the Van Buren Township Fire Department, where agency leaders analyzed their roles in the emergency operation.\nMonroe County Coroner David Toumey's pager brought him to the command post first at nearby Dillman Farms, and then the nearby fire station on the airport grounds where he used a hanger as a temporary morgue.\n"I have a unique perspective because I work with so many different agencies and departments, and I've never seen this kind of cooperation before. There was not a turf issue whatsoever," Toumey said.\nThe Indiana State Police have responsiblity for securing the scene of plane crashes pending the arrival of National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration investigators. After the NTSB and FAA inspect the crash site, the scene is opened up to the Coroner's office, which retrieves the victims for identification and autopsy. Toumey said the scene transfers couldn't have been handled better, and said he was also impressed with how information about the incident was controlled, thanks to Deputy Chief Mike Cornman and State Police Sgt. Joe Watts. \nUnder the National Incident Management System, a federal system for organizing the chain of command in handling a large emergency, the role of Public Information Officer fell to Cornman, as well as ISP Sgt. Joe Watts. Toumey said the crash investigation wasn't a media frenzy.\n"I was really pleased with myself, my staff, and others that the media didn't know what was going on," Toumey said. "It wasn't that we were trying to keep information away from the media, but it was a matter of ensuring the correct information was released at the proper time, by the proper person."\nA report released by the NTSB Wednesday said airport visibility was 100 feet at the time of the crash, thanks to fog. Minimum visibility to make a landing at the airport is 200 feet.