Six local men die in Bloomington plane crash

Susan Montgomery
NTSB air safety investigator Todd Fox examines the tail section of the Cessna 414A that crashed early Tuesday morning in Bloomington, Ill.

NTSB air safety investigator Todd Fox examines the tail section of the Cessna 414A that crashed early Tuesday morning in Bloomington, Ill.

Six local men die in Bloomington plane crash.

The lives of seven area men were cut short in a crash of a Cessna 414 airplane just short of the Bloomington-Normal Airport early morning of April 7.

Killed were Aaron Leetch, 37, deputy director of athletics for external operations at Illinois State University (ISU); Torrey Ward, 36, associate head coach of the ISU men’s basketball team; Terry Stralow, 64, co-owner of Pub II in Bloomington-Normal; Andy Butler, 40, of Normal; Jason Jones, 45, of Bloomington; pilot Thomas Hileman, 51, of Bloomington; and Scott Bittner of Eureka, who was the owner of the plane.

The group was returning from an NCAA Basketball Championship in Indiana. Bittner’s father-in-law, Scott Barrow, a former clinical assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, told the Chicago Tribune that Bittner had received a call from Stralow on Monday morning, saying he had an extra ticket to the basketball championship and asking if Bittner wanted to attend.

The plane left Indianapolis around 11 p.m. Monday evening and apparently encountered foggy conditions over central Illinois, according to a statement from the McLean County Sheriff’s Office.

Peoria air traffic control notified the Bloomington-Peoria Airport Authority that it had lost contact with a private plane at about 12:15 a.m. Tuesday. Airport Authority personnel responded to the Central Illinois Regional Airport to determine if the plane had landed, according to the sheriff’s office.

The plane was discovered three hours later in a field northwest of the intersection of Illinois Route 9 and McLean County Road 2100 East. All seven individuals were pronounced dead at the scene.

Airport authorities said that although the airport tower closed at 10 p.m., the airport itself was open. While conditions were foggy when the plane went down, it has not yet been confirmed if the weather was a factor. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are conducting an investigation into the cause of the crash. A preliminary report is expected to be released next week, Peter Knudson, of the National Transportation Safety Board, said on Friday.

Hileman, who often served as a pilot for Bittner, served in the Air Force and Air National Guard and attended Southern Illinois University. He is survived by his wife, Ami, and their five children.

Stralow graduated from ISU in 1974 and later co-owned and operated Pub II in Normal. He is survived by his wife, Joan, and two children.

Ward starred at Phillips High School in Birmingham, Alabama. He played overseas and served as an assistant at Jacksonville State and Ole Miss before joining the staff at ISU. He was named associate head coach after the 2013-14 season.

Leetch is survived by his wife, Lindsay and two daughters.

Jones was a senior vice president and certified financial adviser at Wells Fargo Advisors. He graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1991 and received a master’s degree from ISU. He is survived by his wife, Lyndsey, and two children.

Scott Lee Bittner owned Bittner’s Eureka Locker Inc. since 1994. He is survived by his wife, Carrie, and two children.