Six people are dead after a plane leaving Osceola County crashed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Authorities said the small private plane had engine trouble and it crashed while trying to get to the Tuscaloosa Regional Airport.
- Piper PA-31 aircraft left Kissimmee Gateway Airport Sunday
- Airplane was supposed to go to Oxford, Mississippi
- Plane crashed in Alabama
The Piper PA-31 left the Kissimmee Gateway Airport around 10 a.m. Sunday but never made it to its destination in Oxford, Mississippi.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the plane crashed into trees on its way to runway 30 at the Tuscaloosa Regional Airport.
"It was an aircraft landing in Tuscaloosa Regional Airport and it sent out a distress signal,” said Bobby Herndon the mayor in Northport, Alabama. “Tuscaloosa fire department had their airport fire trucks on standby, hoping that the plane was going to land, but it fell short, it fell in this park that is run by the Park and Recreation of Tuscaloosa County.”
We’re told the passengers in that plane were on their way back from a dental convention here in Central Florida. They may have been attending Siroworld, a dental meeting that took place over the weekend in Orlando at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort.
Jay Hughes a state representative in Mississippi where the plane was headed, took to Facebook to talk about the six lives lost and said the victims were three married couples.
His post reads: “Please pray for them, and the little orphans each of them left behind.”
The FAA is helping the National Transportation Safety Board with this investigation, in order to find out more on how and why this crash happened.