A staff member at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, was among those who died in the Bangor, Maine, airplane crash on Sunday.
In a statement emailed to The Christian Post on Wednesday, Lakewood Church confirmed that Shawna Collins was killed in the crash along with three other passengers and two flight crew members.
“We can confirm with great sadness that a beloved member of our church staff and treasured friend, Shawna Collins, was on the plane that crashed in Maine on Sunday evening,” stated the church.
“She was a light that brightened our days, and she possessed a beautiful spirit that lifted everyone she met. We loved Shawna dearly, and we will miss her more than words can express. We pray for her entire family and offer them our love and support during this difficult time.”
A church spokesperson also told CP that Collins “was traveling for personal business outside of Lakewood.”
On Sunday, a Bombardier Challenger 600 private aircraft that was carrying six people crashed while taking off from Bangor International Airport around 7:45 p.m.
The plane was described by The Associated Press as “a wide-bodied business jet” that can have up to 11 passengers and is known to be a “popular charter option.”
The crash occurred as the East Coast was experiencing a winter storm, leading to widespread flight cancellations and several power outages.
Approximately 12,000 flights across several cities and multiple states were canceled on Sunday due to the storm system, with an estimated 20,000 flights delayed, the AP reported.
Collins was a Houston-based event planner. Her daughter told ABC 13 in Houston that her mother was excited about a business trip to Europe.
At least three others confirmed to have died in the Sunday plane crash have been identified.
Forty-seven-year-old pilot Jacob Hosmer was a licensed flight instructor and the managing member of Platinum Skies Aviation LLC. Attorney Tara Arnold is the wife of Arnold & Itkin founding partner Kurt Arnold. Nick Mastrascusa, an executive at a luxury travel company owned by the Arnold family, was most recently identified as a crash victim by his family, according to a Wednesday update from KTRK.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the accident. A preliminary report states that the plane “crashed under unknown circumstances on departure, came to rest inverted and caught on fire."
Bangor International Airport Director Jose Saavedra said during a press conference on Wednesday that weather conditions are impacting the investigation. He was questioned why the plane took off during the snowstorm.
"There were planes landing and departing around that time and we had crews on site responding to the ongoing storm that we had," Saavedra said, according to WMTW. "We have crews on site that respond to storms and we prepare for this on a regular basis. This is normal for us, to deal with weather events, and we had crews on site to address the weather event that we had ongoing."
