An airplane with twin engines crashed soon after it took off from the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport on Wednesday. The Beechcraft BE20 went down at around noon, according to a preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The plane was carrying five people who were headed to Columbus, Ohio. Lieutenant Cody Burk from the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office stated that the authorities were in “recovery mode,” adding that no survivors had been found.
Authorities have not been able to determine the ownership of the plane, but it did not appear to be a commercial aircraft. The crash occurred on a road outside a 3M manufacturing plant, and multiple agencies responded to the scene.
An investigation will be conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board, as is typical in plane crashes. Burk noted that weather conditions at the time of the crash were “not that good,” with a thunderstorm and wind gusts of over 40 mph.
Metrologist Pat Walker from NBC affiliate KARK reported that a thunderstorm had moved into the area at the same time as the crash. However, Burk could not speculate on the cause of the crash.
The identities of the five people on board the plane have not yet been released, and the investigation is ongoing.