A small plane crashed into a building at Wichita MidContinent Airport (ICT) just before 10 a.m. central time on Thursday, killing four people and injuring five others. Photos circulated within minutes on social media, showing a large fire and cloud of smoke.
According to FAA spokesperson Elizabeth Isham Cory, the twin-engine Beechcraft King Air declared an emergency shortly after takeoff, stating that he had lost the left engine. Moment later the King Air crashed into a building on airport property.
The aircraft, reportedly a King Air 200 (similar to the one on the left) was registered to Beechcraft Corporation in Wichita. It crashed into the roof of the FlightSafety International building, located on Airport Road in between the two main runways. While the registration of the King Air has not been confirmed, a King Air 200 was scheduled to depart Wichita MidContinent Airport this morning just before 10 a.m. for Mena, Arkansas, according to FlightAware.com data.
The FlightSafety building is used as a Cessna Pilot Training Center and reportedly had about 100 people inside at the time of the accident. According to the Wichita MidContinent Airport Twitter feed, the building “sustained serious damage, including the collapse of walls and ceilings.”
MidContinent Airport is reporting at least four fatalities and five people injured and taken to the hospital. As of Thursday afternoon, four people are unaccounted for. Wichita Business Journal reports that The Wichita Police Department has called on relatives of people working in the building to meet at their command post at 1780 S. Airport Road.
FAA investigators are on the scene. The airport remains open and flights are operating as normal.
UPDATE 10/30 at 3 p.m: Daniel McCoy from the Wichita Business Journal reports that a man claiming to be a friend of the pilot has identified the pilot as Mark Goldstein, and says that Goldstein was killed in the crash. According to McCoy’s Twitter feed, Goldstein was working as a contract pilot and was flying the recently purchased King Air to its new owners in Arkansas.
UPDATE 10/30 at 9 p.m: Ron Ryan, a friend of the deceased pilot, spoke to KSNW-TV in Wichita and confirmed the pilot’s identity as Mark Goldstein, a long-time air traffic controller who retired about a year ago and became a contract pilot. National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Paul Rinaldi also confirmed his passing on the NATCA Facebook page with the following statement:
