Owls Head, Maine — Authorities say three people were killed Friday when plane taking off from an airport in Maine struck a truck on the runway and crashed.
According to WCVB News 5 , the aircraft, a Cessna 172 single engine, was heading north on a runway at Maine’s Knox County Regional Airport shortly before 5 pm, when it clipped a pickup truck and crashed into the woods.
“The aircraft got a little air for a short time before crashing into the woods,” Knox County Chief Deputy Tim Carroll told the Penobscot Bay Pilot newspaper.
Firefighters and emergency responders found the aircraft on fire at the end of the runway, at the edge of the woods and extinguished the blaze. All three passengers aboard the plane were killed in the crash.
The identities of the victims and the aircraft remain under investigation.
While it’s not uncommon for vehicles to travel on the runway during takeoffs, it remains a mystery whether the truck’s driver failed to notify his movement across the runway Friday night, or the pilot’s failure to heed the call was to blame for the accident.
“It is normal for trucks like that to be crossing, and given the frequency of vehicle traffic on the runway, those on the runway and those flying are given a radio frequency to communicate and notify when they are moving around,” said deputy Carroll. “Who didn’t know about who, that part is still in the process of being figured out.”
WLBZ has more on the deadly plane crash at Maine’s Knox County airport in the video below:
