11 people were killed Friday night in Hawaii when a twin-engine skydiving plane crashed on Oahu's North Shore, Hawaii News Now reported.
The plane, which apparently crashed on takeoff, burst into flames after impact, the television station reported. All 11 people were pronounced dead at the scene, Honolulu Emergency Services Department spokeswoman Shayne Enright told Hawaii News Now.
The King Air plane crashed near Dillingham Airfield, Hawaii Department of Transportation spokesman Tim Sakahara told The Washington Post.
Authorities initially reported that nine people died in the crash Friday evening and that three of them were customers of a skydiving company and six were employees.
But the Hawaii Department of Transportation tweeted Saturday that officials later “confirmed there were 11 people on board the plane” and no survivors.
“Upon arrival, we saw the plane fully engulfed in fire,” Honolulu Fire Chief Manuel Neves told reporters. “The first crews on scene extinguished the fire.”
Neves said the names of the passengers are known but are being withheld, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. Some surviving family members were at the tower, he said.
The crash was reported at 6:24 p.m.. and the fire was under control within 20 minutes, fire Capt. Kevin Mokulehua told the newspaper.
“It is very difficult. In my 40 years as a firefighter here in Hawaii, this is the most tragic aircraft incident we’ve had," Neves told reporters.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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