Six Are Dead After a Small Plane Crash in California

Six people were killed on Saturday after a small plane that was traveling from Las Vegas crashed near an airport in Murrieta, Calif., the authorities said.

Emergency responders found the aircraft engulfed in flames in a field outside French Valley Airport, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said. The six occupants were pronounced dead at the scene, the department said.

The identities of the victims were not immediately available.

The crash of the plane, a Cessna C550, was reported around 4:15 a.m. local time. The crash burned about an acre of vegetation before the fire was contained more than an hour later, fire officials said.

The flight had departed from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the crash with the National Transportation Safety Board.

The board said five investigators were traveling to the scene of the crash on Saturday.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, but the board said the plane had crashed near the airport during the pilot’s second attempt to land there.

The crash occurred just days after another fatal plane crash in the area.

On Tuesday, a single-engine Cessna 172 crashed shortly after takeoff from French Valley Airport in Murrieta, a city of 113,000 people that is about 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles, the sheriff’s department said.

The pilot was pronounced dead at the scene. The authorities identified the pilot as Jared Newman, a 39-year-old resident of Temecula, about 60 miles north of San Diego.

Three juvenile passengers were taken to a hospital with various degrees of injuries, local officials said. Their conditions were not immediately available on Saturday.