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| Updated: 11/08/2012 11:34 am |
Published: 11/07/2012 12:24 pm |
CONWAY, AR – Police say the pilot of a plane that took off from the Conway airport around noon Wednesday and crashed shortly after has died.
Police say the pilot was identified as Robert Allen, 65 of Oxford, MS. Allen was the sole occupant of the plane. He was taken to UAMS where he died from his injuries overnight.
"When he hit the ground, I mean it just, it just made this loudest noise,” Witness Justin Whatley said. “I mean, it sounded like a train had a wreck right out here behind us."
Whatley works at Conway Glass Tinting, just up the street from the airport - and saw the whole thing.
"I heard his engine start to fail, so I turned and looked out here and I saw him as he was taking off,” Whatley said.
“His engine started to sputter and he was coming down right over here by the trees and his plane just started to spiral towards the ground."
Police say the plane's wing actually clipped a tree on the way down.
They believe the plane then crashed through a fence and landed next to a tanker with the word "flammable" printed on the side.
"You see this plane wedged against this truck and the word ‘flammable,’ quite unnerving," Latresha Woodruff with the Conway Police Department said.
Luckily - as it turns out, the truck is empty.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash.
