Multiple passengers were killed when a single-engine plane crashed and caught fire at Wright Brothers National Memorial’s First Flight Airport in North Carolina on Saturday, officials said.
The crash happened at 5 p.m. in a wooded area at the airport, which is located near the town of Kill Devil Hills, the National Park Service (NPS) said in a news release.
“Eyewitnesses reported that the airplane was attempting to land at the airport,” according to NPS. “Following the crash, a fire ensued that caused the airplane to burn.”
The Kill Devil Hills Fire Department and other local fire departments helped to extinguish the fire after the plane crashed.
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Wright Brothers National Memorial as seen from the air in Kitty Hawk, Kill Devils, North Carolina. (Visions of America/Joseph Sohm/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Nadia Popruzhenko told WVEC-TV that she was driving as she spotted the plane making its descent.
“At the beginning, I thought he was really high, and all of a sudden, he just went down a little too quick,” Popruzhenko said. “This one went down so quick that I thought it was too low.”
It was unclear how many people were aboard the plane at the time of the crash, though NPS confirmed “multiple passenger fatalities.”
The aviation history monument at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The airport is closed until further notice, the park service said, adding that the Wright Brothers National Memorial will be closed Sunday.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. The Federal Aviation Administration has also been notified.
The Wright Flyer lifts off for the first time in Kitty Hawk as Orville mans the controls and Wilbur runs alongside in 1903. (Wilbur and Orville Wright via National Park Service)
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The Wright Brothers National Memorial was constructed in the area where Wilbur and Orville Wright conducted “a series of experiments that three years later resulted in the world’s first heavier than air, powered controlled flight,” according to NPS.
