GAINESVILLE, Texas (AP) — A flight instructor and her student are dead after the fiery crash of their twin-engine plane at a North Texas airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration says the Piper PA-34 went down soon after 4 p.m. Sunday while preparing to land at the municipal airport in Gainesville, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) northwest of Dallas near the Oklahoma border. It crashed about 440 yards (402 meters) from a runway.
The Texas Department of Public Safety says Chinese student pilot 22-year-old Yu Qiu was pronounced dead at the scene. Twenty-five-year-old instructor Francesca Norris of North Richland Hills later died at a hospital.
It’s unclear who was in control when the plane went down. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
The FAA has not yet released the plane’s tail number.
