A single-engine plane has crashed, killing a flight instructor and injuring two college students on board, officials in Virginia say.
Screenshot from WTTG.
A flight instructor was killed and two college students were seriously injured in a plane crash in Virginia, officials said.
The crash happened just after 3 p.m. Oct. 6 after the plane took off from Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport in Newport News, Virginia, a spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration told McClatchy News. There were three people on board the Cessna 172 single-engine plane.
An 18-year-old student from Hanover, Maryland, was flying the plane at the time of the incident, WTTG reports. During takeoff, the aircraft pulled sharply, causing the engine to stall. sending the plane into a divethe publication reports.
The plane fell about 100 feet onto an embankment near the runway, officials told WTTG.
Police say there was an instructor pilot on board died in an accident, WRIC reports. The instructor has been identified as 23-year-old Victoria Teresa Isabel Ljungman of Williamsburg, Virginia. Ljungman was also a commercial pilot.
“There was not a single sore bone in Victoria. Not only was she kind, but she was also smart, beautiful, adventurous, punctual, a risk-taker and radiated positive energy,” her roommate Miyana Mabry told WAVY. “She was truly a person you only meet once. And I will love her until the next day forever.”
The student piloting the plane and another 18-year-old boy who was a passenger on the plane, was seriously injured as a result of the crash, WVEC reports. Both men were taken to Riverside Regional Medical Center for treatment, and one was later transferred to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center Hospital in Richmond.
A university spokesperson confirmed that both are students at Hampton University, according to WAVY.
“Out of respect for the students and their families, we have no further comment at this time,” a WAVY spokesperson said.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, an FAA spokesman told McClatchy News.
Neither Virginia State Police nor Hampton University immediately responded to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
Newport News is about 70 miles southeast of Richmond.