WIMBERLEY, Texas (AP) — A small plane carrying pickleball players crashed among trees in Texas Hill Country, killing all five people aboard, authorities said Friday.
The crash happened around 11 p.m. Thursday in Wimberley, a city about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southwest of Austin, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
“The pilot and four passengers on board were pronounced deceased on scene,” Sgt. Billy Ray told reporters. “The plane did catch fire. That would indicate some pretty severe damage to the plane.”
The names of the victims were not immediately released by authorities, though the Amarillo Pickleball Club in Amarillo, Texas, said they were members who were flying to a tournament.
“Please keep their precious families in your thoughts and prayers,” the club said on Facebook.
An unidentified woman wiped her eyes and fanned her face with her hands as she stood behind yellow police tape near the crash site Friday afternoon. A man consoled her.
The plane, a Cessna 421C, plane took off from Amarillo, Texas, about two hours earlier and was headed to New Braunfels National Airport, according to the flight history. Aerial photos posted online by the Austin American-Statesman showed the aircraft completely destroyed in a wooded area.
Ray declined to answer most questions from reporters, noting that federal authorities will be leading the investigation.
Stacey Rohr, who lives nearby, said she was in bed when she heard a crash and “felt everything vibrate.”
“It was so close I felt like it was the back of my place up in flames,” said Rohr, who immediately called her landlord.
Cecil Keith said he heard what sounded like an engine backfiring — “pow, pow, pow” — when the plane flew over his house moments before the crash.
“Something was definitely wrong,” he told KEYE-TV.
A second aircraft traveling in the area landed safely at the airport in New Braunfels, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of San Antonio, Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra said. A pilot said he and the Cessna pilot were flying there together, according to Air Traffic Control audio.
“I haven’t heard anything from him,” the pilot says on the recording.
A controller responds: “He started to move erratically and now his track is disappeared from the scope. So we want to make sure everything’s all right with him.”
At least one pilot in the area confirmed the troubled plane’s locator emergency device had emitted a distress signal. The controller called 911.
It was mostly cloudy in the New Braunfels area shortly before the crash and there was a thunderstorm two hours later, the National Weather Service said.
Wimberley, with a population of about 3,000, and New Braunfels, with a population of about 116,000, are tourist destinations in the Texas Hill Country.
