By Jeff Decker
News-Chronicle
ASHWAUBENON - Dairy shipments Tuesday were again leaving the Morning Glory Dairy, 3399 S. Ridge Road, a day after it was struck by a private jet, killing the pilot, hospitalizing three workers and destroying the dairy's cooler section.
"My heart goes out to the families of these people," Gov. Scott McCallum said Tuesday during a tour of the decimated bottling plant. "I'm very happy to announce that the dairy will be back in operation very soon."
Four workers were treated Monday and released. The eight-passenger jet struck the dairy shortly after it had taken off from nearby Austin Straubel International Airport.
The names of the pilot and injured are being withheld. Two of the warehouse workers are in critical condition and one is in fair condition at St. Mary's Burn Center in Milwaukee.
Five inspectors with the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board said that their inspection was progressing more easily than expected. They said the task now is to gather all pieces of the plane, and then to have a conclusion within six months on the cause of the crash.
The coordinated rescue response was commended by McCallum, who said that Monday he immediately dispatched an agent with his Emergency Management Task Force. He said figures were not yet available, but that aid dollars were being directed to local agencies, which may include employment agencies.
The state secretaries of Workforce Development and Employment Relations flew in with McCallum to review the employment needs of the dairy, which is owned by Foremost Farms U.S.A.
The plant was operating in part on Tuesday, and will be shifting storage needs to warehouses in Appleton and Chilton. The dairy provides 50,000 gallons of milk and one million pounds of sour cream to the region weekly.
On Tuesday, water spewed from severed pipes and racks upon racks of sliced cheese melted into each other, and with the butter and cream which filled the warehouse.
"What we have is a mess," said Village President Ted Pamperin, who recalled when the warehouse was rededicated. "That was two years ago," he said. "This is a $10 million building."
The jet, too, was new and top-of-the-line. Without fuel, the Citation 501 model plane weighs 24,400 pounds. Its wingspan in 63.6 feet and the fuselage is 19 feet tall, 72 feet long.
The plane crashed ionto the cooler's south side, exploding in a fireball that pushed walls onto the parking lot. Not a single outside paneling section was undented by the pressure.
What fuel did not ignite trickled to nearby Dutchman's Creek, where it has caused environmental concerns.
"As much as I hate to say it, it could have been worse," McCallum said, pointing to a shift change that took employees from the cooler at the moment of impact and the excellent coordination of local agencies.
Fire and rescue units from five municipalities were on scene, alongside County Rescue Services and the Wisconsin State Patrol. Police units from numerous agencies aided.
The village of Ashwaubenon has maintained jurisdiction, including during the FAA and NTSB inspections.
"Once everybody's back and we can all take a deep breath, we'll probably have a stress debriefing," said Capt. Steve Cox of the Ashwaubenon Public Safety Department.
The department called in nearly every one of its 45 members, he said. "All our officers are police officers and firefighters. Everybody's an EMT and about 15 of them are paramedics," he said. "If they were on vacation, we called them in."
There has been a "lot" of overtime, Cox said. "This is what it's there for."
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