Five people were killed Sunday when a small airplane crashed near an apartment complex for seniors, authorities said. There were no survivors aboard the plane.
The victims included the pilot and a pair of fathers traveling with their sons, said John Clabes, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The aircraft was trying to make an instrument landing in rainy conditions with poor visibility.
The Piper Navajo owned by Dash Air Charter Inc. of San Antonio was on approach to San Antonio International Airport shortly after 5 p.m., said Clabes. The pilot had filed a flight plan in Dodge City, Kan., Clabes said.
The pilot was off course on his approach and was swinging around to try again when the plane crashed. “He pulled out of the approach and disappeared off our radar,” Clabes said.
David Herrmann, vice president of the company that owns the plane, told the San Antonio Express-News that the group was returning from a pheasant hunting trip in Kansas.
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board were scheduled to arrive in San Antonio on Monday to investigate.
Joe Rios, a spokesman for San Antonio police, part of the 34-foot-long plane was buried in the ground at the housing complex. One wing disintegrated on impact, he said, while the other was embedded in the wall of an apartment.
A woman was in that apartment at the time, but she was not hurt.
No one on the ground was hit by the wreckage, although “good-sized pieces” of the plane were on the floor of the woman’s apartment, District Fire Chief Randy Jenkins said.
