Officials believe the pilot of a small plane that crashed into a flight-training building at a Kansas airport is among the four people who were killed.
Wichita Fire Chief Ronald Blackwell confirmed that three of the dead were inside the building when the plane crashed into it Thursday at the city's Mid-Continent Airport. Blackwell said the fourth victim was on the roof of the building and is believed to be the pilot. All others who were in the building were accounted for.
Identities of the dead were not released.
Authorities said the plane lost power just after takeoff and tried to return to the airport when it crashed into the building. Five others were injured in the crash, and one was in serious condition at a hospital.
The plane, identified as a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air, crashed into a building that FlightSafety International uses to train pilots to fly Cessna planes, company spokesman Steve Phillips said.
It appeared to strike the top of the building and ignite what Wichita Fire Chief Ronald D. Blackwell described as a "horrific" fire.
Jeff Papacek, 39, of Wichita, said he saw a "giant fireball" as he was heading to his engineering job at Learjet, which has a testing facility at the airport. He said he didn't see the crash because there were too many buildings in the way, but he said the plane caught his attention beforehand.
"We are used to planes flying straight with the runway and this plane just didn't look like it was lined up and was way too low for the direction it was going," Papacek said, adding that he drove to the crash site to see what was happening and saw the building fire raging.
The crash did not appear to be significantly disrupting passenger traffic at the airport as planes could be seen taking off from other runways.
Located several miles west of downtown Wichita, a longtime aircraft manufacturing hub, Wichita Mid-Continent is used by private aircraft and served by several airlines and their regional affiliates, including American, Southwest, Delta, United and Allegiant. It saw more than 13,000 departures and about 1.4 million passengers last year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The crash is the latest in a string of incidents at the airport. In December, an avionics technician was arrested after a months-long undercover sting when he allegedly tried to drive a van filled with inert explosives onto the tarmac in a plot prosecutors say was intended to kill as many people as possible. Then in January, an Oklahoma man rammed his pickup truck through a security gate at the airport. In September, the airport conducted a large-scale disaster exercise featuring the mock crash of a 737 aircraft.
FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said it is "too early to rule anything out" about the cause of Thursday's crash and confirmed the FBI is assisting in the investigation, but stressed the agency's protocol is to respond to "any and all plane crashes at airports."
______________________________________
KGOU produces journalism in the public interest, essential to an informed electorate. Help support informative, in-depth journalism with a donation online, or contact our Membership department.
