Two people are dead after a plane crashed near an airport in Tarrant County, Texas, on Sunday.
Emergency crews found the victims after the plane crashed near Hicks Airfield around 1:30 p.m. local time, a Fort Worth Fire Department spokesperson confirmed to The New York Times. The plane struck a parking lot where 18-wheeler trailers and campers were being stored, causing a fire, the Times reports. A nearby commercial building was also reportedly set on fire.
Footage from CBS Texas showed fire crews battling flames at the scene as thick, dark smoke rose into the air shortly after the crash.
“We thought we were responding to two separate incidents,” the fire department spokesperson told the Times. “Later on, we realized it was all part of the same one.”
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office told The Independent that there had been a plane crash, but provided no further details. The fire department confirmed to CBS Texas that the blaze is under control.
Hicks Airfield is a private airport about 16 miles northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. It’s located just off U.S. Route 287 Business, which was blocked in both directions near the site. Lois Kinman, a representative for Hicks Airfield, told the Times the plane was not based at the airport.
An unnamed witness told WFAA they were working at a nearby cafe when they heard a loud boom, and a customer ran inside asking them to call 911. When they ran outside, they saw that a plane appeared to have crashed into parked trucks.
Another witness, Lauren Anderson, told the Times she saw a “giant black cloud of smoke” that appeared to be 100 feet wide. Once crews responded and the smoke cleared, Anderson said it “kind of looks like nothing happened.”
“There was probably about a 20-, 30-minute window where it was just nonstop emergency vehicles,” she told the outlet.
