Five people died, including a child, after a private plane which took off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Florida, will crash in Virginia this Sunday.
Around 3 p.m., the twin-engine IAI Astra 1125 crashed into a wooded area near Ingalls Field Airport in Hot Springs, Bath County, Virginia, in the southeastern United States, authorities reported.
In the accident All five people on board the aircraft perished: the pilot, the first officer and the three passengers, one of whom was a boy.
US authorities did not reveal the identities of the deceased, however, Spanish press media They reported that among the victims are three Spanish citizens.
Is about Alfredo J. Diez, a native of Betanzos, in La Coruña, Galicia, and professional pilot; his wife and son, only three years old, the newspaper revealed The debate.
Díez was owner and CEO of the Atlantis Aviation pilot school in Miami., where he had resided with his family since 2016. In addition to his wife and young son, the plane included two other crew members when the accident that cut their lives short occurred.
The mayor of Betanzos, Maria Barral, expressed his dismay at what happened and conveyed his “condolences to the family and those close to him on behalf of all of Betanzos.”
“My great friend Alfredo J. Diez left yesterday with his family and crew on his eternal flight. My friend Alfredo and I did business since 2019 and he was a great Galician. (...) A Spanish citizen who built Atlantis Flight Academy and Sky Elite Charter in recent years, representing Spain and Galicia well in South Florida," said one of his friends who lives in Miami..
A Virginia State Police spokesperson confirmed to the news agency Associated Press what The aircraft caught fire after impact.
He specified that there was an emergency on board, which forced the plane to attempt an emergency landing at Ingalls Field airport. However, the operation did not go as expected and the device ended up crashing in a wooded area near the air terminal.
According to local reports, witnesses saw plumes of white smoke rising from the site where the plane fell. The airport was closed after the accident.
The president of the Bath County Airport Authority, Jeff Ford, explained that, just before the accident, the airfield received a call indicating that a plane needed to make an emergency landing. However, it is still unknown what type of emergency.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration announced that the tragic event is under investigation.
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