Small plane crashes into hill in Washington state, killing 3

2012-02-16 16:56:53 GMT+7 (ICT)

NORTH BEND, WASHINGTON (BNO NEWS) -- Three people were killed on early Wednesday morning when a small plane crashed into a hill in the central-western region of Washington, local and federal officials said. There were no survivors.

The accident happened between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. local time when the single-engine Cessna 172 aircraft crashed on the sheer face of Little Si, a hill near the town of North Bend in King County which is named after its taller neighbor, Mount Si. There were three people on board.

Residents and deputies in the region reported hearing an explosion at the time of the accident, but it took search-and-rescue teams several hours to locate the wreckage. King County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Cindi West said its helicopter was receiving an emergency locator transmission but experienced difficulty pinpointing the location.

West said the bodies of three people, two men and one woman, were recovered at the scene of the accident. It was not immediately clear if the emergency locator transmission was automatically activated upon impact or if it was activated by someone who initially survived the crash.

Mike Fergus, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), said the aircraft was registered in Wilmington, Delaware to Christiansen Aviation. The identities of the victims were not immediately released, and it was also not immediately clear where the aircraft was flying from and to.

Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the cause of the accident.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-02-16

I lived in the area. Those aren't "hills". They are shear-faced mountains. Dangerous place to fly, especially at night.