TOLEDO, Ohio—Two people are dead after a cargo plane approaching an Ohio airport crashed just a few hundred feet from a highway early on Wednesday, Sept. 11, and burst into flames, authorities said.
No other injuries were reported from the early morning crash just east of the Toledo Express Airport.
The plane was approaching the airport when it went to ground and struck unoccupied vehicles at Bubba’s Diesel & Auto repair business, just east of the airport, the port authority’s manager of airline affairs, Joe Rotterdam said.
By mid-morning, no flames were visible as firefighters occasionally sprayed water on the smoldering wreckage. The debris appeared to be contained to the auto business, where at least one trailer was mangled and burned.
“The wreckage is in multiple pieces, so it’s a larger debris area (at) that business,” Rotterdam said, according to video posted online by WTVG.
Officials believe the plane had traveled from Laredo, Texas, and stopped outside Memphis, Tennessee, on Tuesday before heading to Ohio, Rotterdam said. It crashed at or around 2:37 a.m.
Officials can’t yet confirm whether any distress call was made from the aircraft, Rotterdam said.
Rotterdam said it’s not clear if there is a so-called black box with recorded data about the flight.
Officials said no further details were immediately available about the people who died or the plane’s owner.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the Ohio State Highway Patrol were helping with the investigation.
Because the crash happened away from the airport, the crash will not disrupt other flights there, Rotterdam said.
The CNN Wire contributed to this report.
