TUPELO, Miss., May 16 (UPI) — Four people were killed Monday morning when a small, private plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Tupelo’s airport, according to police.
The Beechcraft Bonanza crashed at 8:32 a.m. a half mile from the runway, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The plane is registered to Henry Jackson of Kerrville, Texas, about 50 miles northwest of San Antonio. The singleengine plane, with a top speed of 230 mph and a range of 1,000 miles, arrived in Tupelo on Sunday from Kerrville Municipal Airport. The flight plan had a destination of Charlottesville, Va.
“The log at the airport said there were three people on onboard, in addition to the pilot,” said Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre. “We did not see any survivors.”
Aguirre did not know if the pilot made a distress call or if there were any reports of mechanical failure.
“There is quite a bit of debris. The plane was broken up,” Aguirre said. “We found some bodies on the scene. Right now, we are waiting for the [FAA] to arrive and begin their investigation.”
In August 2011, a pilot died when his Cessna twin-engine airplane crashed into a tree near a home upon takeoff from the same airport. The National Transportation Safety Board determined the crash’s probable cause came from the airport mechanic’s failure to properly install a fuel line to the plane’s engine, causing the engine to quit and the plane to crash.
