Bahamas pastor Myles Munroe and his family are feared among nine dead aboard a small Bahamas-bound aircraft that crashed Sunday night, according to local reports.
The internationally known motivational speaker had been on his way to Monday’s Global Leadership Forum hosted by the Bahamas Faith Ministries, an organization Munroe founded, when his private Learjet crashed on approach to the Grand Bahamas International airport, according to a Tribune 242 report.
Photos show rescuers scaling piles of debris at the Grand Bahama Shipyard only three miles away from the Freeport airport, where the aircraft “exploded on impact” while attempting to land, the Tribune wrote.
“The Department of Civil Aviation has been advised unofficially that the aircraft was destroyed and that there were no survivors,” the Ministry of Transport and Aviation said.
Nine passengers were aboard the Learjet when it crashed around 5 p.m. local time after departing Lynden Pindling International in the Bahamas capital of Nassau. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined, though there had been heavy rain across the region.
Munroe, a 60-year-old Bahamas native, is the published author of more than 100 spiritual and inspirational works. He is also a government and business consultant to Fortune 500 businesses, according to a biography on the Ministries website.
“The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but its life without a purpose. …without purpose life has no meaning,” Munroe wrote on Twitter in May.
Video from the Ministries headquarters shows a group of supporters sobbing upon hearing news of Munroe’s alleged death during the plane crash.
The Global Leadership Forum will continue as scheduled, according to a statement released by Munroe’s Facebook page. “This is what Dr. Munroe would have wanted. Please keep this family and the ministry in prayers,” a spokesperson wrote.