AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A small plane carrying pickleball players crashed among trees in Texas Hill Country, killing all five people aboard, authorities said Friday.
The crash happened around 11 p.m. Thursday in Wimberley, a city about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southwest of Austin, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
“The pilot and four passengers on board were pronounced deceased on scene,” Sgt. Billy Ray told reporters.
Names of the victims were not immediately released by authorities, though the Amarillo Pickleball Club in Amarillo, Texas, said they were members who were flying to a tournament.
An unidentified woman wiped her eyes and fanned her face with her hands as she stood behind yellow police tape near the crash site Friday afternoon. A man consoled her.
The plane, a Cessna 421C, took off from Amarillo and was headed to New Braunfels National Airport, according to the flight history. Aerial photos posted online by the Austin American-Statesman showed the aircraft completely destroyed in a wooded area.
Ray said federal authorities were leading the investigation.
Stacey Rohr, who lives nearby, said she was in bed when she heard a crash and “felt everything vibrate.”
“It was so close I felt like it was the back of my place up in flames,” said Rohr, who immediately called her landlord.
Cecil Keith said he heard what sounded like an engine backfiring — “pow, pow, pow” — when the plane flew over his house moments before the crash.
“Something was definitely wrong,” he told KEYE-TV.
Dan Dyer, president of the Amarillo Pickleball Club, said he’d played many games with four of the five people who died.
“I’ve handed them medals. They were excellent players. They were out to win some games,” Dyer said. “Every weekend there are dozens of tournaments. Some people get the bug; others don’t. But once they do, they’ll travel for a tournament.”
Dyer said a second plane was traveling to the event from Amarillo at the same time. Authorities said it landed safely at the airport in New Braunfels, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of San Antonio.
“I haven’t heard anything from him,” the pilot of the second plane said, according to Air Traffic Control audio.
A controller responded: “He started to move erratically and now his track is disappeared from the scope. So we want to make sure everything’s all right with him.”
At least one pilot in the area confirmed the troubled plane’s locator emergency device had emitted a distress signal. The controller called 911.
It was mostly cloudy in the New Braunfels area shortly before the crash and there was a thunderstorm two hours later, the National Weather Service said.
Wimberley, with a population of about 3,000, and New Braunfels, with a population of about 116,000, are tourist destinations in the Texas Hill Country.
White reported from Detroit. AP reporter Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this story.