North Carolina Plane Crash: 5 killed in Western NC Cessna Crash [Video]

Federal aviation authorities say a small plane flying out of Florida’s Venice Municipal Airport crashed at the Macon County Airport in Western North Carolina Thursday afternoon with five people aboard.

According to the FAA, the aircraft, a Cessna Citation 501, left Venice Municipal Airport(VNC) sometime after 11am Thursday crashed in North Carolina around 1:45pm. All five passengers were killed.

Macon County officials said the plane appeared to approach at too steep of an angle and attempted to correct. When it attempted to correct, one of the wings dipped causing it to flip and explode.

“The right wing dipped, flipped the airplane upside down and immediately burst into flames. My two people were there within a minute, literally within a minute, hoping someone got thrown clear of the airplane but there was no one to be seen, ” Macon County Airport Operator Neil Hoppe told ABC News 7.

While the names of the victims – which according to the Asheville Citizen Times include two couples and a female child – have not been released at this time, ABC 7 reports that the plane is registered to Bogdan Jakubowski of Venice, FL.

The FAA will resumed its investigation into the plane crash today. A preliminary report by the NTSB should be available next week.

More on the tragic Macon County, North Carolina plane crash in the video below: