An unfortunate incident took place on Friday night when a small plane used in a skydive operation erupted into flames and crashed in Hawaii, killing all nine people aboard.
As per to the officials in Hawaii statement, the nine people who died in a flaming crash of a small airplane was used in a sky dive operation.
The plane burst into flames at around 6:30 pm on Friday in Hawaii as family and friends anticipating to spectate their loved ones skydive looked on.
The Hawaii Department of Transportation confirmed the deaths on Twitter late Friday night in their recent tweet regarding the incident tweeted, “#HDH update: With extreme sadness HDOT reports there were 9 souls on board the King Air twin engine plane that went down near Dillingham Airfield with no apparent survivors.”
In another tweet they said, A twin-engine aircraft has gone down near Dillingham Airfield with six fatalities being reported by first responders. More information to follow.”
Justin Kepa, who was a witness of the dreadful incident, told Hawaii News Now that he watched the plane go down. He said, “We saw big smoke. We saw the big fire, firemen trying to put it out. Crazy.”
It was on a skydiving outing when it got crashed around 6:30 p.m., Honolulu Fire Department Chief Manuel P. Neves stated.
Neves further said that the plane was engulfed in flames when fire-fighters came into rescue, and they were trying to extinguish them. The people who were present at the time of incident witnessed the plane coming heading toward before it went down on top of a fence line, away from the runway.
Neves told CNN affiliate KHON on Friday night, “In my 40 years as a firefighter here in Hawaii, this is the most tragic aircraft incident that we had.” He further added, “We had some helicopters with the military, but this is a civilian plane that went down and with that many people on board.”
The names, ages, gender or any other information of the passengers who died in the crash have not yet been released. Some family members were present at the airfield when the plane crashed down, Neves said.
Crews with Honolulu Emergency Services said it assisted with death announcements of the nine after getting the call at 6:26 pm local time, agency spokeswoman Shayne Enright stated.
As per to the recent report by Hawaii News Now, the “sunset tandem” flight was carrying three customers as well as six employees of the Oahu Parachute Center.
The crash is considered to be one of the deadliest civilian air disasters ever happened in Hawaiian history, as per to Hawaii News Now, which converse with a local skydiving coach who also knew those who were on board at the time of the incident. The diver said that there was the total number of nine people on board out of which three were students, five skydivers, and the pilot when the plane went down.
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell tweeted, “I am closely following the tragic developments out of Dillingham Airfield this evening. At this time our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the victims.”
