Tulare County plane crash kills one person in front of terrified witnesses

Witnesses described the terrifying moment a plane fell out of the sky and exploded, killing one person.

“We had seen it kind of like whirl around like a little bit too low into these orchards. And that’s when we had seen it kind of flip over and go straight to the ground,” Makayla Hernandez told ABC30.

The small aircraft crashed over the weekend near Woodlake airport in Tulare County, California and struck several power lines, according to authorities.

“I went out to the road and looked, and this big plume of black smoke was just up right over here,” Terry Thompson told CBS47.

Other witnesses told the outlet the plane appeared to stall and quickly lose power, before plummeting to the ground.

“I just seen it from the corner of my eye, just coming down,” Benjamin Varela said.

The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office and Fire Department responded to the crash just before 11am Saturday morning, but did not provide details as to what caused the incident and have not released the identity of the person who died.

Video of the crash shows the downed plane engulfed in flames just off the side of a road near an orchard. 

“It’s a really scary thing, you know? Like, I never would have thought that something like this would have happened where I would witness it firsthand… just really worried for the family,” Hernandez told ABC30. 

The National Transportation Safety Board has taken over the investigation.

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