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A plane was flying over Texas on Thursday, carrying a pickleball team to a tournament, before tragically crashing, killing all five people on board.
The names of the victims were not immediately released by authorities, although the Amarillo Pickleball Club in Amarillo, Texas, said they were members who were flying to a tournament. The plane crashed in Wimberley, a town 40 miles southwest of Austin, at 11 p.m. Thursday.
“The pilot and four passengers on board were pronounced dead at the scene,” local police sergeant Billy Ray told reporters.
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Ray said federal authorities are leading the investigation.
Dan Dyer, president of the Amarillo Pickleball Club, said he played numerous games with four of the five people who died.
“I gave them medals. They were great players. They wanted to win some games,” Dyer said. “Every weekend, dozens of tournaments take place. Some people get the virus, some don’t. But once they do, they travel to a tournament.”
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Dyer said a second plane was flying to the event from Amarillo at the same time. Authorities said he landed safely at New Braunfels Airport, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of San Antonio.
“I didn’t hear anything from him,” the pilot of the second plane said, according to the air traffic control audio system.
A controller responded: “It started moving erratically and now its track has disappeared from the telescope. So we want to make sure everything is okay with it.”
At least one pilot present in the area confirmed that the emergency tracking device of the plane in difficulty had issued a distress signal. The controller called 911.
The weather was mostly cloudy in the New Braunfels area shortly before the crash and there was a thunderstorm two hours later, the National Weather Service said.
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Wimberley, with a population of approximately 3,000, and New Braunfels, with a population of approximately 116,000, are tourist destinations in the Texas Hill Country.
