Aberdeen�s Ramada Inn is full. Nearly two-thirds of its 152 rooms are booked for media people and government investigators traveling to the area in the wake of the crash of a Learjet near Mina on Monday.

About 90 rooms are reserved for CNN, NBC, Fox, other media and staff from the Federal Aviation Authority, said Jon Kaufman, guest services supervisor at the Ramada. The hotel came �not even close� to meeting demand for rooms. Many folks had to be turned down, he said.

The Comfort Inn is full for the next three nights, said Peyton Podoll. �We�ve had tons of phone calls. It sounds like every room in town is booked up.�

At the Aberdeen Regional Airport, 20 private jets flew in on Monday, said Shannon Yeske, manager of Quest Aviation. �The ramps are the busiest they�ve ever been.� Some planes dropped off media people and departed, but most remain at the airport.

Fifteen rooms at the Ramkota Inn are reserved for ABC and CBS and four for Sioux Falls-based television stations. At least another 11 are designated for federal authorities, said Doug Klipfel. �We had to turn some people away, too. Today (Monday) is the only day we are completely full. But we have reservations for the next five days because of this (tragedy).�

It�s safe to say all Aberdeen lodging facilities were nearly completely booked for Monday night, said Lori Cope, executive director of the Aberdeen Area Chamber of Commerce. �Most everyone found lodging for (Monday and Tuesday). But where it is really going to get tight is over the weekend.� That�s because pheasant hunting season is in full swing.

Cope said her office handled a deluge of calls on Monday. �It was mainly news reporting staff from throughout the United States, interested in lodging accommodations and car rentals.� A South Dakota Highway Patrol reported late Monday that all rental cars are spoken for in Aberdeen and people are hiring private citizens to drive them around. 

�We�ve got people coming in from just about everywhere,� said Brenda Moore, CVB executive director. She said the first call to her office was from a San Francisco newspaper reporter wanting to talk to eyewitnesses and seeking the phone numbers of restaurants near Mina. The American News also fielded more than 100 crash-related calls. �We had calls from London, Scotland, Australia�everywhere,� said switchboard operator Bobbie Dempsey. About 85 percent were from media. The rest were mostly local people seeking information. �We had one lady who called from Minnesota. Her late husband had lived in Mina and she wanted to know exactly where it went down.�

Government offices were swamped with calls, too. �It started to slow down after 4 p.m. Before that, it was terrible, terrible,� said Shirley Habeck, dispatcher at the Edmunds County Sheriff�s Office. �It was just a rat race. Everybody was calling. It was terrible, terrible.� 

She said she was unable to give callers much information because Sheriff Laurie Gerdes and all deputies were at the crash site. The Aberdeen/Brown County Joint Communications Center also handled a rash of calls, said director Mark Mills. Most were from media and were transferred to Edmunds County where the accident occurred.

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(c) 1999, American News, Aberdeen, S.D. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.