A man was killed when a plane used for skydiving crashed in Niagara County, New York on Saturday, reports CNN. Following the incident, New York authorities launched an investigation on Saturday.
The single-engine Cessna 208B plane, used for skydiving, crashed off Lake Road near Youngstown, New York, shortly before 1 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
According to a news release from the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday, the plane from the Skydive the Falls skydiving center had finished dropping off all the divers and was heading back to ground when it crashed, CNN reported.
FAA spokeswoman Tammy L. Jones said the pilot, who was the only person on the plane, was operating a parachute before the crash.
However, it is still unclear how many divers were on board the ship before the accident, Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti said at a news conference Saturday.
According to the release, a bush fire also later broke out around the accident site.
Filicetti said the initial response crew “had to put out a large fire at that point.”
The sheriff called the crash “an unfortunate incident” and said local and federal law enforcement partners were working to determine what caused the crash.
“I think it’s just like any other emergency type of incident … you come in here, you want to try to save lives. Unfortunately, in this case, we couldn’t do that,” Filicetti said.
An investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board is expected to visit the crash site on Saturday, NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson told CNN.
Knudson said investigators would document the wreckage of the plane, which would be taken to a secure location for further evaluation.
According to CNN’s report, the investigation will cover three primary areas, including the pilot, the aircraft, and the operational environment.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
