G21Agoose
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(CNN) -- A twin-engine plane carrying four people crashed Monday near the center of the resort town of Branson, Missouri, killing all aboard, officials said.
About 12:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. ET), the pilot had just taken off in rain and fog from Point Lookout, Missouri, when he radioed he was having difficulty with the plane and was going to try to return to the airport, said Jerry Adams, communications manager for the city.
The six-seat Piper Seneca -- bound for Lubbock, Texas -- was carrying a full load of fuel when it crashed into a building containing rental storage units.
"He was trying to circle around and, in so doing, according to witnesses, the plane dropped rather quickly below the clouds and crashed into the storage units," Adams said.
"He's going very fast and then, all of a sudden, he dies like that and, when he hits the ground, I mean, there was a huge ball of fire and you could feel the explosion of it coming through the ground," one witness said.
"You could also see stuff flying from the storage units that it went into; then, all of a sudden, there was black smoke everywhere."
Terry Ware, an employee of a plumbing company near the crash, told The Associated Press the plane sounded like it had engine trouble as it flew over her office.
"My boss saw it in the air, and he said it was making some very erratic movements," Ware told AP, adding that she hurried to the scene but could not get near the plane because of the intense fire.
"You could hear the people screaming," she told AP. "You couldn't get close enough to help them before the fuel went off."
The plane was destroyed, as was the building housing the storage units, said Ted Martin, division chief with the Branson Fire Department.
Extinguishing the fire, which was fed by material inside the storage units, was proving difficult, he said late in the afternoon.
"It's just going to be several hours of overhaul, where they need to dig into the fire -- the seat of it -- to completely put it out."
Investigators from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive Tuesday.
Officials withheld the identities of the four people killed pending notification of relatives. A co-owner of the plane, reached at his office in Lubbock, said Monday he did not know who was flying the plane.
Branson, located near the border with Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains, is a popular tourist destination featuring dozens of live-music venues.
RIP
About 12:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. ET), the pilot had just taken off in rain and fog from Point Lookout, Missouri, when he radioed he was having difficulty with the plane and was going to try to return to the airport, said Jerry Adams, communications manager for the city.
The six-seat Piper Seneca -- bound for Lubbock, Texas -- was carrying a full load of fuel when it crashed into a building containing rental storage units.
"He was trying to circle around and, in so doing, according to witnesses, the plane dropped rather quickly below the clouds and crashed into the storage units," Adams said.
"He's going very fast and then, all of a sudden, he dies like that and, when he hits the ground, I mean, there was a huge ball of fire and you could feel the explosion of it coming through the ground," one witness said.
"You could also see stuff flying from the storage units that it went into; then, all of a sudden, there was black smoke everywhere."
Terry Ware, an employee of a plumbing company near the crash, told The Associated Press the plane sounded like it had engine trouble as it flew over her office.
"My boss saw it in the air, and he said it was making some very erratic movements," Ware told AP, adding that she hurried to the scene but could not get near the plane because of the intense fire.
"You could hear the people screaming," she told AP. "You couldn't get close enough to help them before the fuel went off."
The plane was destroyed, as was the building housing the storage units, said Ted Martin, division chief with the Branson Fire Department.
Extinguishing the fire, which was fed by material inside the storage units, was proving difficult, he said late in the afternoon.
"It's just going to be several hours of overhaul, where they need to dig into the fire -- the seat of it -- to completely put it out."
Investigators from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive Tuesday.
Officials withheld the identities of the four people killed pending notification of relatives. A co-owner of the plane, reached at his office in Lubbock, said Monday he did not know who was flying the plane.
Branson, located near the border with Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains, is a popular tourist destination featuring dozens of live-music venues.
RIP
