NASSAU Bahamas A private jet struck a construction crane on approach to Grand Bahama International Airport on Sunday and crashed, killing all nine people aboard, including the leader of the Bahamas Faith Ministries, police and civil aviation officials said. 
 
 Pastor Myles Munroe was headed across the island chain from Lynden Pindling International Airport near Nassau, capital of the archipelago nation, to Grand Bahama, where authorities said they believed he was due to host a church conference. 
 
 Munroe was accompanied by his wife, Ruth, as well as his Bahamas Faith Ministries deputy, Richard Pinder, another pastor and his family, sources said. All nine passengers and crew perished in the crash, Grand Bahamas police said. 
 
 Authorities said the Lear jet exploded on impact with a crane at the Grand Bahama Ship Yard and plunged into a junkyard below as it was making its landing approach for Grand Bahama about 5:10 p.m. EST, roughly an hour after takeoff from Nassau. 
 
 The Bahamas Faith Ministries is among the largest religious congregations in the island chain, with thousands of worshipers, and Munroe is a well-known author, leadership consultant and frequent visitor to various African countries. 
 
 The Civil Aviation Department said it would launch a full-scale investigation of the crash at daylight on Monday. 
 
 (Editing by Steve Gorman and Peter Cooney) 

 FREEPORT, Grand Bahama (AP) — A small plane crashed Sunday on approach to the island of Grand Bahama, killing all 9 people on board, the government of the Bahamas said. 
 
 The Lear 36 Executive Jet had taken off from the Bahamian capital of Nassau and crashed while attempting to land around 5 p.m. local time in Freeport, according to a statement from the Ministry of Transport and Aviation. 
 
 "The Department of Civil Aviation has been advised unofficially that the aircraft was destroyed and that there were no survivors," the ministry said. 
 
 The crash occurred as people were gathering in Grand Bahama for the 2014 Global Leadership Forum. The Bahamas Tribune newspaper reported that Myles Munroe, a prominent Bahamian minister who organized the event, was killed along with several people in his entourage. 
 
 Chief Supt. Clarence Reckley said he could not confirm the report and that authorities were still trying to determine the identities of the victims. 
 
 The cause of the crash has not yet been determined though there had been heavy rain across the region. 
 
 Police and fire authorities were on scene and a full investigation would begin at daylight on Monday. 
 
 Grand Bahama is about 70 miles (113 kilometers) east of Florida.
– A well-known preacher and his wife were among nine passengers killed after their plane "exploded on impact" after hitting a crane in the Bahamas, Reuters reports. The Learjet 36 was carrying Myles Munroe, wife Ruth, and Richard Pinder, the VP of Munroe's ministry, among other passengers and two pilots, NBC News reports; all died. The plane was said to have hit a shipyard crane as it approached Grand Bahama International Airport shortly after 5pm yesterday and then plunged into a junkyard below; the AP reports that there had been heavy rain in the area. "The Department of Civil Aviation has been advised unofficially that the aircraft was destroyed and that there were no survivors," reads a statement from the Bahamian Ministry of Transport and Aviation. Munroe, a well-known motivational and inspirational speaker on the Christian evangelical circuit—he was perhaps most famously linked to the Promise Keepers Christian men's movement—was said to be headed with the other passengers to the Global Leadership Forum, which his Bahamas Faith Ministries International group leads. A spokesman for the ministry says the forum will still go on, albeit in a condensed form, because it's "what Dr. Munroe would have wanted," NBC News notes. Bahamian officials are reportedly beginning a full investigation into the crash this morning.