USA
Plane “broken apart in mid-air”: three dead
Deployment of police and security forces near the crash site in Leipers Fork in the US state of Tennessee. photo
© Nicole Hester/The Tennessean/AP/dpa
What happened in the small plane over Tennessee is uncertain. Only widely scattered pieces of wreckage on the ground can be recovered.
Rescue workers who arrived at the suspected crash site near Franklin, south of Tennessee’s capital Nashville, quickly realized that it was not a rescue operation, but a search and rescue operation, local broadcaster Fox17 quoted him as saying. There were three occupants on board the machine, which, according to the US Transportation Safety Board, was a Beech V35.
According to police, the cause is still unclear. According to US media, the first emergency call was received around midday due to the sound of an explosion and the discovery of aircraft parts. The plane had taken off from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and was en route to Louisville, Kentucky. The emergency services closed several streets because the rubble was scattered widely in the area – several residents reported wreckage to the police that they had found on their properties. Nothing else was damaged.