Five people dead after plane bursts into flames following crash on side of motorway
Five people died after a single-engine airplane crashed beside a highway in Nashville.
The city’s metro police department said the plane crashed off the eastbound lanes past the Charlotte Pike exit.
The control tower at Nashville’s John Tune Airport received a message from a pilot at about 7:40 pm ET on Monday (00.40am GMT) saying their aircraft was experiencing engine and power failure and needed permission to land.
A spokesperson for the Nashville Fire Department told the television network the plane imploded on impact adding, “the impact was catastrophic and did not leave any survivors.”
Communication between the pilot and the air traffic controller before the fatal crash was captured on the website LiveATC.net, CNN reports.
The Air Traffic Controller asked: “Do you still have John Tune Airport in sight?” to which the pilot responded “My engine shut off. I’m at 1,600 [feet]. I’m going to be landing…I don’t know where.”
National Transportation Safety Board air safety investigator Aaron McCarter said that two adults and three children were on the plane, all of which were Canadian citizens.
McCarter added that the flight originated in Ontario, Canada, and made stops in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Mount Sterling, Kentucky.
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McCarter said the flight was headed to John Tune Airport in Nashville on Monday night but for unknown reasons passed over the airport at 2,500 feet.
He said the plane then made a U-turn, reported a complete loss of engine power and crashed into the side of the highway.
The NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the crash of the single-engine plane, the FAA said.
The plane was a Piper PA-32, according to the NTSB.
Tennessee Department of Transportation Region 3 spokeswoman Rebekah Hammonds said the crash prompted the temporary closure of I-40 east at mile marker 202.
Live traffic cameras also showed a large emergency vehicle response blocking all eastbound travel lanes near the crash site and a string of gridlocked traffic leading up to the shut-down stretch of I-40 east.