Two people were killed when a twin-engine plane crashed Tuesday morning into a car dealership lot just outside the southeastern Ohio city of Marietta, officials said.
The 1974 Beechcraft King Air E90 crashed in the parking lot of a Pioneer Buick GMC dealership, killing the pilot and the plane’s only other occupant, Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Nathan Dennis told reporters.
The crash happened shortly after 7 a.m., and the plane was headed from Columbus to Parkersburg, West Virginia, just miles from the crash site, Flightradar24 data indicates. The plane took off from John Glenn Columbus International Airport around 6:35 a.m., Dennis said.
No one outside the plane was injured, Dennis said. The plane occupants’ names were not immediately released.
“There are some vehicles that are damaged … [and] the building did have a little bit of damage as well,” Dennis said.
Thick, dark smoke and orange flames rose from the parking lot in video of the scene posted to Facebook by Amber Davis, a Marietta-area resident who heard an explosion from her home and went outside to see what happened.
The fire has been put out, Marietta police Cpt. Aaron Nedeff told CNN.
The dealership is on a commercial stretch of State Route 7, which also serves as the Ohio River Scenic Byway. The dealership is flanked by a hotel and a farmers market.
Marietta is a city of about 13,000 residents about a 13-mile drive northeast of Parkersburg and just across the Ohio River from the Mountain State.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, according to an FAA statement.
“The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide updates,” the FAA statement reads.
