14 DAY TRIAL // The National Transportation Safety Board has been called in to investigate a small aircraft crash that has killed four people in New Mexico.
The incident occurred on Sunday, March 3, as the plane was taking off from Angel Fire Airport, in Colfax County.
Lynn Lunsford, speaking for the Federal Aviation Administration, clarifies that the plane crash took place at 1:24 p.m. The Federal Aviation Administration will be involved in the inquiry, writes Taos News.
The Angel Fire Fire Department were called in and responded swiftly, telling reporters that there were “no survivors” in the fallen aircraft.
While there is no news about the identity of the victims as of yet, the FAA website lists the Mooney M20E as owned by Verhalen Flyers LLC in Scottsville, Texas.
According to an account by Carl Shilcutt of Angel Fire Airport, quoted by KOAT, the four people on board were residents of San Antonio, Texas.
The small, single-engine airplane stopped functioning and came crashing down approximately 500 yards (457 meters) from the runway, reports say.
Lunsford details that weather in the airport that day was particularly windy. However, the cause of the incident is not known at this point and authorities are yet to confirm if heavy winds caused it to come tumbling down.
“At this point, it’s really too early to speculate on what might have happened. [...] Whether that played a role in the accident … investigators will determine,” she says.
John Nelly, a resident of nearby Taos, describes that he was among many witnesses who watched the incident.
“It appeared the plane was trying to build altitude leaving the runway and caught the wind wrong and took a nosedive for the ground,” he notes.
“When I came up on the scene there was really nothing left of the aircraft or to indicate that it was even an aircraft,” adds Michael Turri, who reached the scene 30 minutes after the incident.