At least two people are dead after a small plane crashed near Mississippi’s Tupelo Regional Airport, officials said Saturday, while responders rushed to the scene to put out a fire.
Among the dead were a pilot and a local doctor in the plane that crashed into the Army Aviation Support Facility around 8 am.
According to CBS NewsSergeant Michael Moody of the Tupelo Fire Department also confirmed the fatalities.
The identities of those killed have not yet been released and authorities are investigating the cause of the crash.
An eyewitness of the accident said WCBI that he and his wife were driving down a nearby road when he saw the ship “banking really hard” and “saw a cloud of smoke.”
He said that I told my wife that the plane has crashed.
He pulled over to see if “there was anybody I could help”, but noted that there was “massive flame” in the debris field, which led him to realize that There was “nothing” he could do.
Emergency responders, including the National Guard and fire trucks, were on the scene within three minutes, he said.
Tupelo Regional Airport is more than 65 years old and is a transportation hub for North Mississippi.
Tupelo has a population of about 38,000 and is about 190 miles from the state capital, Jackson.