Fourteen people were killed when a plane crashed in a cemetery as it approached an airport in Montana, officials said today.

The search for a plane carrying 10 people from a US skydiving company was focused on the rugged central Washington Cascades where a hunter reported hearing a crash.

Mount St Helens, the volcano that blew its top with cataclysmic force in 1980, quietened down after spewing a plume of steam and ash – but only briefly.