Melbourne plane crash: Five killed as aircraft hits shopping centre near airport
A light plane has crashed into a shopping centre near an airport in Melbourne killing five people, Victoria police said on Tuesday.
An Australian pilot and four American tourists on a golfing vacation were killed when twin-engine Beechcraft Super King Air crashed in a "massive fireball" into a shopping mall on Tuesday shortly after takeoff in the Australian city of Melbourne, officials said.
The US Embassy in Canberra confirmed that four victims were US citizens. Texans Greg Reynolds De Haven and Russell Munsch have been identified by their families on social media as two of the victims.
De Haven's sister Denelle Wicht posted on Facebook that her 70-year-old brother had been killed "on a once in a lifetime trip to Australia" with friends.
"The US Embassy in Canberra and US Consulate in Melbourne are working closely with local authorities. We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance to the families of the victims," an embassy statement said.
The pilot was Max Quartermain, owner of the charter company Corporate and Leisure Travel.
The plane had taken off from Melbourne's second-biggest airport at Essendon for a golfing trip to King Island, 255 kilometres (160 miles) to the south, officials said.
The suffered engine failure and crashed into the mall near the end of the runway at Essendon Airport, Stephen Leane, a Victoria state police assistant commissioner, told reporters in Melbourne.
"There were five people on the aeroplane and it looks like nobody's survived the crash," Mr Leane said.
"Looking at the fireball, it is incredibly lucky that no one was at the back of those stores or in the car park of the stores, that no one was even hurt," Mr Leane said.
A pilot reported a "catastrophic engine failure" moments before the plane crashed into a storage area at the rear of the mall, police said.
Australian news outlets showed burning wreckage strewn across the mall's car park and a thick column of black smoke rising from the crash site.
"It appears to be a very, very tragic accident that has occurred out there," said Lisa Neville, the Victoria state police minister.
"It appears a light plane, which is a charter flight, has impacted the DFO at Essendon Fields. There's also debris that's been left on the [Tullamarine] freeway."
“I was chatting to my friend waiting for DFO to open and then see the low flying plane come in and crash behind one of the stores," Daniel May, a bystander, told Fairfax Media.
"There was an orange explosion and then smoke.”
A taxi driver who was passing by told ABC Radio: "The plane was coming way, way fast. I thought that's faster than normal. It looked like it hit the building, there was a massive fireball, I could feel the heat through the window.
"Then a wheel, it looked like a plane wheel, bounced on the road."
Emergency services rushed to contain the blaze and closed surrounding roads.
“At this stage we do not have information regarding possible casualties and police are currently evacuating the area,” a Victoria Police statement said.
Fire services have warned people to avoid the area.
“Lots of smoke visible in the area,” a spokesperson said. “Please avoid the area."
