The Texas Department of Public Safety said the plane, a four
seat, single-engine Piper PA-24, had just taken off from a
private residential airstrip when it lost altitude and crashed
near a feed store parking lot by a highway.
Cell phone video taken by motorists on the highway and broadcast
on local TV showed flames and thick black smoke coming out of
the wreckage.
No one was injured on the ground and no structures were damaged
by the crash and fire, the Comal County Sheriff's office said.
The sheriff's office identified the victims as the 38-year-old
pilot Michael Galloway, his wife Heather Galloway, 32, and their
two children, aged 8 and 10. The family lived near where the
crash took place.
There was no immediate word on the plane's destination or a
possible cause of the crash. The sheriff's office said the
Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation
Safety Board plan to begin an investigation on Sunday.
(Editing by Jon Herskovitz)
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