A small plane carrying four people returning from a trip to see the solar eclipse crashed in Arkansas on Monday, according to the local airport manager.
Longtime airport manager Jim Looney told The Post that the Twin Navion aircraft had flown the group to Clarksville Municipal Airport in Arkansas to view the stunning total eclipse in the state’s western region.
The group then boarded a plane to return home and took off from the same airport, only to crash less than 2 minutes later, about 2:15 p.m., Looney said.
He claimed that while all four people survived, they were hurt and were evacuated to a hospital for treatment.
“It’s not from here,” Looney stated about the crashed airliner. “They just flew in for the eclipse.”
Looney believed that approximately 15 planes landed at Clarksville Airport to witness the spectacular natural airshow.
“And when it was over, they all fired up and were leaving,” he went on to say. “Most of them were here for an hour or two.”
The city, which has a population of about 10,000 people, was a popular destination for vacationers on Monday due to its great location for seeing the eclipse.
It’s unknown what caused the crash. Looney said he spoke with two witnesses, and there is speculation that the small plane’s engine may have failed.
“They were in the air and cleared the trees along the runway. “They hadn’t even reached the end of the runway yet,” he continued.
“They were airborne probably halfway down the runway, and then two-thirds down the runway, they lost an engine, and… they went into the trees and into a large forested area.”
Looney, a member of the local fire department, helped rescue the four occupants, all of whom were conscious when he arrived at the scene.
He explained that the first responders had to extract them from the plane by popping the canopy.
Johnson County Sheriff Tom Hughes told KFSM that four individuals were injured in the collision, but he did not know where the jet was headed.
