A U.S. Navy aircraft crashed into a populated residential area of Alabama, killing both of the crew members on board and causing heavy damage to a house, officials said Friday.
The plane crash happened at around 5pm CST in Foley, Alabama, less than 10 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, and the crew members on board did not survive, said the U.S. Naval Air Forces in a statement Friday evening.
According to the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Department, no residents on the ground were injured or killed by the crash. There are roughly 18,000 residents in the city of Foley.
A spokesperson for Commander, Naval Air Forces, told The Associated Press that two people were on board the training plane, a T-6B Texan II. A spokesperson for the Navy told AP the plane had departed from Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Florida.
Naval Air Forces said in a statement that the names of the people who died in the crash will not be released until 24 hours after the next-of-kin have been informed of their deaths.
We are not aware of any civilian casualties this time. The incident is currently under investigation. The Navy is cooperating fully with local authorities.
— flynavy (@flynavy) October 24, 2020
The local fire department responded to the scene, arriving to a “large volume of fire” but managed to extinguish it quickly, Foley Fire Chief Joey Darbey told WKRG News-5.
“We brought all the resources we had in Foley, made a quick stop on the fire, limited the fire to that area, so one house involved, a couple of vehicles fully involved and then of course the aircraft itself. And we were able to fully extinguish the fire,” he said.
The fire chief emphasized that none of the local residents were injured, despite the crash causing “substantial damage to a house and vehicles.” He referred to the area where the plane crashed as a “heavily populated residential neighborhood.”
One local resident, James Farris, told The New York Times he saw the plane crash after looking outside of his window because he heard something that “sounded like the Blue Angels.”
He told the Times the aircraft exploded on impact, and the wreckage hurled a “big ball of flame” toward another house, where a father and daughter escaped from soon after.
The investigation into the crash remains ongoing and will be handled by the Department of Defense and the U.S. Navy, according to the sheriff’s department.
Update plane crash: The plane involved in the crash is going to be a US Naval aircraft. No civilians were injured on the ground. DOD and Navy personnel will be handling the investigation and will provide further updates.
— BC Sheriff’s Office (@1BC_SO) October 23, 2020
This article has been expanded after publication to include additional information.