Five people were killed when a plane carrying a pickleball team to a tournament crashed in a wooded area near a small town southwest of Austin, Texas.
As of Friday, the victims’ names had not been released, but the Amarillo Pickleball Club in Amarillo, Texas, indicated they were members who were flying to a tournament.
The twin-engine Cessna 421C crashed late Thursday near Wimberley, a town of less than 3,000 about 40 miles southwest of Austin, plunging from an altitude of 13,000 feet, according to one report.
One witness said he heard what sounded like an engine backfiring when the plane flew over his house before the impact.
“The pilot and four passengers on board were pronounced deceased on scene,” local police Sgt. Billy Ray told reporter, according to a Fox News report.
As is the practice with air accidents, the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash. Four passengers and a pilot were onboard.
Dan Dyer, president of the Amarillo Pickleball Club, told Fox he’d played many games with the four players on the ill-fated flight.
“I’ve handed them medals,” he said. “They were excellent players. They were out to win some games.”
He continued, “Every weekend there are dozens of tournaments. Some people get the bug; others don’t. But once they do, they’ll travel for a tournament.”
A second plane was traveling to the event from Amarillo as well. It landed safely at the airfield in New Braunfels, about 30 miles northeast of San Antonio, according to authorities.
Word went out that something had gone wrong while one of the the planes was still in the air.
“I haven’t heard anything from him,” the pilot of the second plane reported, according air traffic control audio.
A controller responded, “He started to move erratically, and now his track is disappeared from the scope. So, we want to make sure everything’s all right with him.”
“At least one pilot in the area confirmed the troubled plane’s locator emergency device had emitted a distress signal,” Fox reported. “The controller called 911.”
Weather was reported as mostly cloudy in the area before the crash.
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