Reuters :
Four people were killed, including the pilot, and five injured when a small airplane crashed into a building at Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita, Kansas, on Thursday, setting off an explosion and huge ball of fire, officials said.
Authorities said they had accounted for four people who had been listed as missing after the airplane, which officials said carried only the pilot, struck a building where pilots train on the airport grounds.
“I heard a big loud noise, but it was muffled. I saw smoke and flames. I rushed over,” said Lana Johnson, 65, who was in a post office near the airport when the plane crashed.
The pilot of the airplane, which was identified as a twin-engine turbo-prop Beechcraft King Air 200, reported losing engine power just after taking off from the airport and crashed as it tried to return, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Four people were dead and five people injured, Wichita Fire Marshal Brad Crisp told a news conference. Authorities have not released the identities of the victims.
One of the injured was listed in serious condition and the four others were treated and released from Via Christi St. Francis Hospital, spokeswoman Maria Loving said.
