SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Two people were killed on Thursday when a small plane crashed at a Southern California airport, authorities said.
The aircraft crashed on a runway at Santa Monica Airport shortly before 4:30 p.m. PDT, the Santa Monica Fire Department said in a tweet. The two victims, who were not identified, were the only people onboard the aircraft.
They were pronounced dead at the scene, KTLA-TV reported.
During a news conference Thursday evening, National Transportation Safety Board officials said the occupants on the two-seat, single-engine Piper Sports aircraft were a flight instructor and a student, KCBS-TV reported.
The airplane reportedly “pitched aggressively nose up” as it was preparing to land, causing it to climb straight up before falling nearly 100 feet to the ground, NTSB officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the NTSB will investigate the crash, the Los Angeles Times reported. Details about what led to the crash have not been released, according to KABC-TV.