Plane Crashes into Shopping Mall in Melbourne, Australia
Information is just coming in now about a small plane that crashed into a DFO shopping mall in Melbourne, Australia. Five people were aboard and have been killed according to sources in the area.
Just before 9am on Tuesday morning a small Beechcraft airplane was taking off and was believed to have clipped the side of the DFO outlet shopping mall. According to 9news in Melbourne, the plane was coming in low and fast and crashed into the building causing an explosion with flames and black plumes of smoke reaching far into the air. Since this is a developing story, there is still more information to come. Investigators will be sent to the scene this afternoon to help determine the exact cause of the incident.
Beechcraft Super King Aircraft from Wikimedia.org
Reports say that the plane made two mayday calls and then crashed, in what officials are calling catastrophic engine failure.
Some reports had stated that the people onboard the aircraft had chartered the plane to go play golf in Tasmania, an approx. 600 km journey from the Melbourne airport.
Since this happened just before 9am, the mall was not yet open, otherwise this could have turned out to be a much more devastating accident.
Local emergency crews are still dealing with the fire and damage as highways and roads around the mall are closed. Investigators can’t get access to the mall as the flames and the heat is too intense at this time. Obviously, the mall is closed today and will remain closed until the investigation can be completed.
Melbourne’s Essendon Airport is just 6 km south of Melbourne’s main international airport Tullamarine and serves as a small public airport serving mostly general aviation flights. There are some scheduled commercial services out of the airport as well, but mostly on smaller, less known carriers.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those affected by today’s horrific event. You can read more information from the news9 report here.
