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The Los Angeles Times quotes sources close to the probe who say that the jet aborted its first attempt to land at the airport in Aspen.

But a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman says that there's no indication from radio transmissions of an aborted landing.

The charter jet was carrying 15 passengers and a crew of three when it slammed into a hillside on approach to the airport.

Everyone on board was killed.

Investigators are looking at several possible causes -- including bad weather.

The Victims

The jet was taking business partners to a lavish birthday party.

Five members of one family -- including the party's guest of honor -- are among the victims.

Two of the 18 people who died were employees of KTTV-TV in Los Angeles, a Fox Television affiliate.

"It's an extremely sad day for us here. We have confirmed this morning that two of our co-workers are among the 18 crash victims," KTTV anchorman Tony McEwing said during the Friday broadcast.

Mir Tukhi and Marisa Witham were on the plane, McEwing said. Tukhi was an assignment editor and Witham was a researcher. Both were from the Los Angeles area and neither were on the flight for business reasons.

"We have finished the process of notifying the families of these individuals," Foulkrod said. "Our deepest and most heartfelt concern goes out to all of the families."

The Crash

Arnold Scott of the National Transportation Safety Board said that the cockpit voice recorder had been recovered. Before the crash, the plane's crew told controllers that they had the runway in sight, he said.

"I've been investigating accidents in Colorado for 20 years and this is the worst accident in terms of life that I know of.," Arnold told reporters at a pre-dawn news conference.

The crash sparked a giant fireball, witnesses said. Two dead passengers were still strapped to their seats and one was sprawled on a hillside amid the wreckage.

Al Kassa had been traveling along the highway and said that the plane had missed his car by about 50 feet.

"The noise was just so loud," he said.

"And then I just saw it going straight into the ground at about a 30-degree angle, and then it just blew up. I've been in a state of shock for the last few hours."

"A woman was running by me and said that she saw three bodies. She was running away and was looking very frightened," another eyewitness said.

The airplane just missed landing on a runway, said Madeleine Osberger, who was also driving near the airport.

She said that she saw the plane in what appeared to be its final approach before it crashed, but she did not see the impact.

"Maybe two minutes later, I turned the corner and saw flames," said Osberger.