U.S. local and federal authorities have announced the deaths of six individuals on board a small plane which crashed and burned in an open area near an airport on the outskirts of Los Angeles on Saturday.
The Federal Aviation Administration stated in a statement that the aircraft, a Cessna C550, took off from Las Vegas and crashed near French Valley Airport in Riverside County, approximately 137 kilometers south of Los Angeles, around 4:15 a.m. local time.
Elliot Simpson, an aviation investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, mentioned in a press conference that all passengers and the pilot who lost their lives were adults. He added that the private plane crashed about 150 meters from the small airport's runway after attempting to land with the assistance of an automated system due to poor visibility conditions in the area.
He noted that the conditions at the time appeared to meet minimum standards for landing at the airport. Simpson stated that in the incident on Saturday, the entire plane was engulfed in flames except for its tail after the crash.
Aerial footage shared by local media showed a burned wreck resembling a small plane in a section of an open area on a street opposite the airport. Radar data from the FlightAware website, which tracks flight movements, showed that only one plane took off from Las Vegas to French Valley at that time, circling once near the open area before landing.
The Riverside County Sheriff's Office, where French Valley Airport is located, reported that officials who dealt with the incident identified the location of the fully burned plane in the open area and announced the deaths of the six individuals on board at the crash site.
Simpson indicated that the National Transportation Safety Board will continue its investigation into the crash, with further results expected to be announced in the coming two weeks. Names of the deceased have not been released.
