Published: Monday, November 29, 2010, 10:17 PM ??? Updated: Monday, November 29, 2010, 10:19 PM
ST. ELMO, Ala. -- A single-engine plane crashed in bad weather in a farm pasture in southwest Mobile County on?this evening, according to responders at the scene.
There was no immediate word on the fate of anyone who was on board the plane.
The plane crashed about a half-mile west of a dead end on Wyn Road, about four miles north of St. Elmo. It was found in a pasture on the Leroy Hill farm, according to a neighbor.
Cpl. Chris McLean, a spokesman for the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, said the first reports of a crash came in at 6:47 p.m. The Sheriff’s Office and the Mobile County EMS responded.
McLean would not say how many people were aboard the privately-owned aircraft. No one was transported to the hospital from the scene, he said.
Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration were en route to the scene Monday night.
Witnesses said they heard an aircraft struggling to stay in the air, followed by a loud noise.
"You could tell by the sound of the engine that it was in trouble," said Frank Childress, a resident of nearby Straub Road. "Screaming, (and) all of a sudden, there was a big boom, and then it was quiet."
The same struggle was heard by Philip Vaughan, a resident of Wyn Road, who said he went out to look at the impact site. "There’s not much left of it," he said.
McLean said there was evidence that the aircraft caught fire on impact.
Flying conditions at the time of the crash were rough. Winds from the southeast blew from 15 to 20 knots, and clouds were reported hanging less than 1,000 feet from the ground.
Both Childress and Vaughan indicated from the sound patterns they heard that the plane may have been attempting to make an approach to St. Elmo Airport, which is parallel to U.S. 90 about four miles south of the crash scene. It is the nearest runway to the crash site, and its tower beacon was visible from March Road near where the plane went down.
McLean said FAA investigators were called from Anniston to come to the scene, and he said it would be past midnight before they arrived.
He said there was no early indication where the flight originated or was bound, and McLean did not know what model of aircraft it was.
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