An airplane that crashed and killed two people at the Camden Municipal Airport on Sunday evening had just taken off and appeared to turn back before hitting the ground and bursting into flames, authorities said.
The plane, a six-seat Beechcraft C35 V-Wing, taxied to the north end of the Harrell Field runway, took off heading south and suddenly made a U-turn as soon as its wheels left the ground, said Capt. Adam LaDuke of the Ouachita County sheriff's office.
The accident occurred shortly after 6:30 p.m.
Authorities have not released the names of the victims, pending notification of family members.
LaDuke said the plane was headed to Saline County Regional Airport in Bryant but had stopped in Camden to buy fuel because it was cheaper there. It's a common practice among pilots to do that, LaDuke said.
LaDuke said he didn't know where the plane flew in from.
Camden Fire Chief Rob Metford said firefighters were called to the airport at 6:52 p.m., and the craft was fully engulfed in flames when they arrived. Firefighters extinguished the blaze with foam and recovered two bodies, he said.
Ouachita County Coroner Sylvester Smith pronounced both of the victims dead at the scene, a sheriff's office news release said.
Both bodies were burned badly, LaDuke said, and he believed both were men. Authorities sent the bodies to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for identification.
The airplane is registered to co-owners Rufus F. Brown of Hensley and Michael S. Felcher.
LaDuke said he spoke with Felcher on Monday morning after learning he was not on the plane.
Metford said the plane crashed in grass just to the northeast of the runway. The burned wreckage was confined to a small area, he said, indicating the plane did not explode in the air. Some witnesses told authorities they heard an explosion when the plane crashed.
Willie Jean Kemp said she returned to her home on Carden Street at the northern end of the airport Sunday night and saw the smoldering wreckage of the airplane.
She said a friend who lives by her saw the crash and notified authorities.
"He said it was taking off and just got up when it turned around and tried to land," Kemp said.
"It took a nose dive and crashed."
Angie Langley, an employee of Quickie's Valero on U.S. 79, said she saw smoke on the northern end of the runway. The convenience store is near the airport.
"We assumed it was someone burning diesel off," she said. "Then we saw the firetrucks."
Police said the weather was clear at the time of the accident.
Lynn Lunsford, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said investigators arrived at the crash site Monday morning and the National Transportation Safety Board is in charge of the investigation.
"It's hard to figure out what happened," LaDuke said. "It made that hard turn left to come back. You can assume it was mechanical failure, but right now all it is is assumptions."
State Desk on 09/26/2017