Plane carrying five passengers crashes into Melbourne shopping center

A golf vacation turned into a tragic incident for four Americans who had gone to Australia for a fun vacation. A small plane carrying four Americans and an Australian pilot, crashed into a shopping center in the Australian city of Melbourne, killing all those on-board.

The incident took place just after 9 am on Tuesday morning as the vacationers were on their way to King Island in Bass Strait between the Australian mainland and the southern island state of Tasmania.

The plane, which was a twin-engine Beechcraft Super King Air, crashed about 45 minutes before the Direct Factory Outlet mall in suburban Essendon was to open. Thankfully because the mall was still closed, there were no shoppers inside due to which massive causalities were averted.

Meanwhile the US Embassy in Canberra has confirmed that the four passengers who got killed in the crash were American citizens.

Texans Greg Reynolds De Haven and Russell Munsch have been identified by their families on social media as two of the victims.

Mr De Haven’s sister Denelle Wicht posted on Facebook that her 70-year-old brother had been killed “on a once in a lifetime trip to Australia” with friends.

The pilot was Max Quartermain, owner of the charter company Corporate and Leisure Travel.

According to eye witnesses’ reports, the plane was flying really low and it suddenly turned into a fireball as soon as it hit the mall. So far, the cause of the crash is still unknown but authorities are investigating what went wrong.

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Posted by fatimaarshad on Feb 21 2017. Filed under Latest News, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.