After taking off from an airfield outside Melbourne, Australia, twin-turboprop Beechcraft King Air plane suffered an engine failure and crashed into the roof of a shopping mall.
According to state police assistant commissioner Stephen Leane, five people including the pilot died in the accident.
“There were five people on the aeroplane and it looks like nobody’s survived the crash,” Leane said.
Daniel Andrews, Victoria premier described crash as the state’s worst air accident in three decades.
It is also reported that just before the crash at 9am, the pilot of the small plane Max Quartermain, is believed to have issued a mayday call citing engine failure.
There were four American passengers in the plane who had planned to play golf on the King Island, 246km south of Melbourne in the Bass Strait.
Police minister Lisa Neville said, “It appears a light plane, which is a charter flight, has impacted the DFO (Direct Factory Outlet) at Essendon Fields.”
