In another tragic small plane incident, four people are dead after their aircraft went down in California, authorities reported Saturday.
In Visalia, California, authorities are saying at least four people have perished in the tragic accident. Officials from Tulare County Sheriff’s Department responded first to the call just after 6:30 p.m. that a small plane went down. Only four minutes elapsed between the plane’s takeoff from Visalia County Municipal Airport and the crash, per Yahoo! News.
Additionally, authorities had difficulty locating the airplane due to the weather. At the time, there was dense fog in the area. The wreckage showed a crumpled cabin that was marred by debris at the location.
“It was dark. At the time, it was much foggier,” Sgt. Jesse Cox said. “We circulated the area with personnel until we found it (the wreckage).”
According to the flight path and tracking system, the pilot tried to return to the airport just after it took off, officials said.
While ambulances and firefighters descended on the scene quickly, they didn’t retrieve any victims from the site or transport anyone to local hospitals.
Further, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is currently investigating the cause of the crash, which remains unknown at this time. No victims of the crash have been identified at this time.
The investigation could take weeks, authorities said.
Overloaded Airplane Crashes Killing 16
In another tragic incident, earlier this year, a Russian airplane carrying people who were training to parachute went down shortly after takeoff.
The airplane was carrying 22 people at the time and others in the event experienced injuries. The cause of the crash is because it was overloaded at the time. This happened near the city of Tartarstan, less than a mile from where the plane took off.
A witness to the crash saw the following:
“I started taking photos, after (my husband) said it was falling. We were around the petrol station at that moment. We turned around and drove there. And it was on fire [after crash], well, actually there was no fire but smoke. My husband pulled out a fire extinguisher, and then people started pulling out [victims].”
Additionally, Air Traffic Control said they lost communication with the plane shortly after it took off.
“At 09.23 a.m. a message was received about the crash of a light aircraft near the RES Base in the city of Menzelinsk,” said The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia. “Preliminary information, units of the Menzelinsk fire and rescue garrison are heading to the place of call.”
At the time, the crash was under investigation by Russian authorities. Six others were receiving treatment for their injuries after the incident.
