Phoenix Plane Crash Into Arizona’s Superstition Mountains(Video)
An aircraft crashed in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix on Wednesday night, killing several people, the website AZcentral reported. Authorities trying to reach the crash site in rugged terrain couldn’t immediately determine what kind of plane was involved.
A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said there were no immediate reports of any missing commercial aircraft. Officials at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport said the same thing.
“We don’t know yet if it’s a passenger plane or a crop duster,” Pinal County sheriff’s spokeswoman Angelique Graham said. “We can’t tell the size of the aircraft involved from the air and we can’t tell how many people may have been aboard.”
Rescue crews were trying to land helicopters in the mountainous area about 40 miles east of downtown Phoenix in order to search for survivors.
Graham said 911 calls began coming in around 6:30 p.m. from people who heard an explosion near the Flat Iron area close to Lost Dutchman State Park.
“People said it sounded like fireworks going off,” Graham said.
Video on Phoenix-area television stations showed several fires burning on the mountainside, and some witnesses said they heard a plane trying to rev its engines to climb higher before apparently hitting the mountains.The Superstitions Mountains’ elevation is about 5,000 feet at their highest level.
