Five killed after small plane crashes in Texas Hill Country

A small aircraft crashed into a wooded area in Texas Hill Country late Thursday night, April 30, killing all five people on board, officials said.

The crash occurred in the dark near Wimberley, a city about 40 miles southwest of the state capital, Austin. Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra confirmed the incident in a post on Facebook on Friday, as per The Guardian.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the aircraft was a Cessna 421C carrying a pilot and four passengers. It went down at approximately 11:25 p.m.

Residents in the area described hearing and seeing the crash. “I just heard a loud crash. I felt everything vibrate,” Stacey Rohr, who lives nearby, told local channel KEYE-TV. “Everything was up in flames. It was crazy.”

Another resident, Cecil Keith, said he heard what sounded like an engine malfunction moments before the crash. He described the noise as “pow, pow, pow” as the plane flew over his house. “Something was definitely wrong,” he told the station.

Flight tracking data shows the aircraft had departed from Amarillo, in northwest Texas, about two hours earlier and was en route to New Braunfels National Airport, near Austin. The plane crashed not far from its intended destination. Aerial images from the scene show the aircraft destroyed among trees.

Becerra said the names of the victims would not be released until their families have been notified.

He also noted that another aircraft flying in the same area landed safely at New Braunfels, which is located about 30 miles northeast of San Antonio. According to air traffic control audio, one pilot said he had been flying alongside the Cessna.

“I haven’t heard anything from him,” the pilot said in the recording.

An air traffic controller responded: “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 vicinity confirmed that the aircraft’s emergency locator transmitter had emitted a distress signal, prompting the controller to call 911.

Weather conditions in the New Braunfels area were mostly cloudy shortly before the crash, according to the National Weather Service. A thunderstorm was reported in the region about two hours later.

Wimberley, a town of around 3,000 residents, and New Braunfels, with a population of about 116,000, are both popular tourist destinations in Texas Hill Country, known for hiking in wooded, rolling landscapes and river activities such as tubing.

By Tamilla Hasanova