DALLAS (AP) — Federal officials confirmed that 10 people, two crew members and eight passengers were killed when a small, twin-engine plane crashed into a hangar during takeoff at an Addison, Texas Airport near Dallas Sunday.
The Town of Addison Police department said that the medical examiner confirmed that 10 people died in the plane crash.
The crash of the BE-350 King Air in Texas comes less than two weeks after a Skydiving crash in Hawaii killed 11 in what was the worst civilian aviation accident in the US since 2011, Airline Ratings website said.
Town of Addison Police released statement of condolences on Facebook
“Our deepest condolences are with their family and friends,” The Town of Addison Police said on Facebook.
The FAA said that the plane model was a Beechcrft BE-350 King Air.
“He got onto the runway, went down the runway, started taking off,” witness Peter Drake told Fox 4 News in Dallas.
“He got to about 200 feet, and I saw him starting to lose power and his altitude, and then I see him just roll over and came straight down right into the building.”
Another witness, pilot David Snell, told the TV station the tragedy happened quickly.
“It all happened over the course of about 10 seconds, and it went from watching an airplane trying to climb and fly to a huge fireball with debris everywhere. It was really awful,” Snell said.
“I’ve flown for 33 years, I’ve heard of crashes and stuff like that, I’ve never witnessed one with a bigger airplane.
According to the AP, National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said the plane crashed at 9:11 a.m. Sunday at the Addison Municipal Airport. He says, “We don’t know a lot about the people on board at this point.”
Landsberg the associated press that the plane was headed to St. Petersburg, Florida.
He also told the AP that the plane had recently changed hands so it’s not clear what the proper tail number currently was.
Jennifer Rodi, the NTSB’s lead investigator on the accident told the associated press that the plane had been owned by a private charter company in Chicago.