Officials confirmed that two people were killed after their plane crashed into a Marietta, Ohio, car dealership early Tuesday morning.
The plane crashed into the dealership parking lot just after 7 a.m. Ohio State Highway Patrol said that the dealership as well as some vehicles in the parking lot were damaged.
Officials said no one else was injured.
The plane, a 1974 Beechcraft King Air E90, departed out of Columbus at 6:35 a.m. and was headed to Parkersburg, West Virginia.
Marietta, a southeast Ohio town home of roughly 13,000 people, is just north of Parkersburg on the Ohio River. The dealership is located in a mostly commercial area of the town. Some Marietta residents said they were awakened by the sound of the crash and then saw a smoke cloud rising into the sky.
The fire at the crash site was extinguished by firefighters.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have launched investigations into the cause of the crash.
The names of the pilot and the passenger killed in the crash have not been released.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.