An airplane has been confirmed to have crashed while on a skydiving excursion in Oahu and erupted into flames, killing all nine people aboard, Hawaii authorities said.
The King Air twin-engine plane went down Friday evening near Dillingham Airfield with no apparent survivors, the Hawaii Department of Transportation tweeted.
It was on a skydiving excursion when it crashed, Honolulu Fire Department Chief Manuel P. Neves said.
- Advertisement -
When firefighters arrived, the plane was engulfed in flames and they worked to extinguish them. Witnesses saw the plane coming inbound before it went down onto a fence line, away from the runway, Neves said.
“This is the most tragic aircraft incident that we had. We had some helicopters with the military but this is a civilian plane that went down and with that many people on board,” Neves told CNN affiliate KGMB.
The Federal Aviation Administration will be taking over the investigation.
The airfield is a general aviation airport operated by the department under a 25-year lease from the US Army, Hawaii’s government website says. The state leases 272 acres of the 650-acre Dillingham Military Reservation and operates the single 5,000-foot runway primarily for commercial glider and sky diving operations.
Comments are closed.