(Reuters) – Five people were killed and four injured when a small twin-engine plane crashed in a U.S. Post Office parking lot in southern Louisiana just after taking off from a regional airport, local media reported.
Six passengers were on the Piper fixed-wing aircraft when it crashed shortly after 9 a.m. local time in Lafayette, Louisiana, police and fire officials told KATC news, a local ABC affiliate.
One person on the plane survived the crash while three people on the ground were injured and taken to a local hospital, KATC reported.
Witnesses told the station that the plane hit a power line as it attempted to make an emergency landing.
The National Safety Transportation Board said the twin-engine aircraft crashed a mile (1.6 km) west of the Lafayette Regional Airport shortly after taking off from the airfield, KATC reported.
Federal aviation investigators told KATC they will conduct an investigation.
Local and federal officials were not immediately available for comment to Reuters.
Windows at the post office were blown out by the impact of the crash. A nearby Walmart was closed and evacuated and homes and businesses near the scene were without power, the news station reported.
The Federal Aviation Administration told KATC that the plane was a Piper Fixed Wing Multi-Engine aircraft owned by Cheyenne Partners LLC based out of Lafayette.
Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama