A routine training flight turned into a nightmare Monday evening when a small aircraft crashed and burst into flames near Corpus Christi International Airport, critically injuring both people on board. The training plane went down along the Highway 44 frontage road, where first responders found it burning and rushed the two occupants to a local hospital before they were later transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for specialized treatment. The crash drew a multi-agency emergency response as investigators began sorting out what went wrong on the approach.
Corpus Christi first responders were called around 7:20 p.m. to reports of a plane down and on fire along the Highway 44 frontage road, according to WOAI. Splendid Aviation, the flight school involved, said an instructor and a student were aboard the aircraft and reported that the plane made contact with power lines, according to a post on the company’s Facebook page cited by the outlet. Both occupants were first taken to a local hospital, then moved to San Antonio for further care.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s preliminary notice identifies the aircraft as a Piper PA-28 with registration number N317HM and classifies the event as an accident that occurred during the approach phase of a flight listed as “instruction” in the FAA’s Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing database. The FAA entry records two seriously injured occupants and notes that the San Antonio Flight Standards District Office is the local FSDO handling notifications…