Five killed after small airplane crashes in Nashville

[March 05, 2024]  (Reuters) -Five people died after a single-engine airplane crashed beside a highway in Nashville, the city's metro police department said early on Tuesday.  

The plane crashed off the eastbound lanes past the Charlotte Pike exit, police said in a post on social media platform X, adding that work was ongoing to determine from where the plane originated.

The Federal Aviation Administration is currently on the scene and the National Transport Safety Board will arrive later on Tuesday, police said.

The control tower at Nashville's John Tune airport received a message from a pilot at about 7:40 p.m. ET on Monday (0040 GMT on Tuesday) saying their aircraft was experiencing engine and power failure and needed permission to land, a police spokesperson told reporters on Monday night, according to ABC News.

A spokesperson for the Nashville Fire Department told the television network the plane imploded on impact. The "impact was catastrophic and did not leave any survivors," the representative said.

The FAA, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and the Nashville Fire Department did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment outside normal business hours.

One of the three highway lanes that was closed due to the crash will reopen shortly and the other two should be open on Tuesday morning, police had said earlier.

(Reporting by Harshita Meenaktshi in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates and Jamie Freed)

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