Plane crash in Texas kills five people
All people onboard Cessna 421C dead after crash on Thursday night
ATT Desk Report
A small plane carrying pickleball players crashed among trees in Texas Hill Country, killing all five people onboard, officials said on Friday, reports The Guardian.
The crash happened in the dark late on Thursday night in Wimberley, a city about 40 miles south-west of the state capital, Austin, the Hays county judge, Ruben Becerra, said in a post on Facebook.
The plane took off from Amarillo, in north-west Texas, about two hours earlier and was headed to New Braunfels national airport, near Austin, according to the flight history. It crashed not far from its intended destination. Aerial images show the remains of the aircraft destroyed in a wooded area.
Becerra said he would not release the names of the victims until family had been notified.
He said a second aircraft traveling in the area landed safely at the airport in New Braunfels, about 30 miles north-east of San Antonio.
One pilot said he and the Cessna pilot were flying there together, according to air traffic control audio.“I haven’t heard anything from him,” the pilot says on the recording.
At least one pilot in the area confirmed the troubled plane’s locator emergency device had emitted a distress signal. The controller called 911.
It was mostly cloudy in the New Braunfels area shortly before the crash and there was a thunderstorm two hours later, the National Weather Service said.
Wimberley, with a population of about 3,000, and New Braunfels, with a population of about 116,000, are both tourist destinations in the Texas Hill Country, drawing hikers attracted to the woody rolling hills and others for tubing on rivers in the area.
