Twin engine private plane crashed in a fireball in Virginia killing all five on board including child moments after suffering on board emergency

The private jet crashed in rural Virginia killing five people Sunday afternoon, including a young child, on Sunday had declared an onboard emergency before the disaster occurred. 

The twin-engine IAI Astra 1125 went down in a wooded area just outside of Ingalls Field Airport, 100 miles north west of Lynchburg, Virginia. 

The plane is reported to have bene en route from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, reports WDBJ. Virginia was not its intended destination. 

Those killed included the pilot, a first officer, two adult passengers and a child aged between 5 and 7 years old. They have not been named. 

Officials have not said if they believe that wind was a factor in the crash. The cause will be investigated by the Virginia State Police, the FAA and the NTSB.  

A small private jet crashed in woods and burned Sunday afternoon near a small airport in rural Virginia, killing all five people aboard, police said.

The incident occurred around 3 pm as the plane came down short of the runway at Ingalls Field Airport in Bath County north of Roanoke (

The crash occurred close to Ingalls Field Airport in Bath County, north of Roanoke in the west of the state. Pictured, a file photo of Ingalls Field Airport

Five people have been killed in a plane crash in Virginia. The plane, a Westwind Astra, was a private jet and burst into flames on impact (file photo)

A state police spokesman told The Associated Press that the plane caught fire on impact. 

'Small crash site, everything is burnt, meaning the tail numbers are unidentifiable,' an official said, adding state police were working with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board to try to identify the flight details and the occupants.

An FAA statement gave no preliminary information on the circumstances of the crash and said that the agency and the NTSB will investigate. 

Local reports showed what appeared to be plumes of white smoke rising from an impact site. The airport was closed in the aftermath of the crash.

There have been a number of fatal small plane crashes so far in 2024. 

Shocking footage captured the moment the plane exploded into a fireball by the side of a Nashville highway last Monday, killing all five on board

A young family-of-five including three children, 12, 10 and 7, perished in fireball in  Nashville last week.

Victor Dotsenko, 43, his wife Rimma, 39, and their three children David, 12, Adam, 10, and Emma, 7, died on Monday next to Interstate-40 when their single-engine plane crashed and burst into a fireball. 

Chilling cockpit audio captured Victor frantically warning air traffic control that his 'engine turned off' at 1600ft, as he said his family are 'going to be landing... I don't know where. I'm too far away, I won't make it.' 

Moments before, Victor mysteriously overshot John C. Thune Airport by several miles before he U-turned and crashed around 8pm, and investigators have 'no idea why.' 

Last month a plane crashed on to I-75 in Florida - killing two people.

The video shows the private jet piloted by 50-year-old Edward Daniel Murphy and second in command Ian Frederick Hofmann, 65, that crashed when its engines failed.

The two pilots died on impact, but thanks to their ability to guide the Bombardier Challenger 60 on to the crowded highway, three others onboard survived. 

In January, four people died when a single-engine aircraft crashed off the coast of Half Moon Bay in California. 

Among them was a 27-year-old 'experimental plane enthusiast' who piloted the four-seater homebuilt aircraft he'd bought for $100,000 from a retired dentist last year. 

A week later another single-engine two-seater homebuilt plane plowed into a car at a busy intersection 60 miles away in Concord, killing its pilot and injuring the car's driver. 

Both accidents are being investigated and have renewed scrutiny on a burgeoning subculture.