Two people were killed when a private jet headed to the U.S. crashed at a Dominican Republic airport in a huge fireball.
The U.S.-registered Gulfstream G200 jet had taken off from La Romana International Airport but declared an emergency mid-flight due to severe mechanical problems, according to reports.
Local media reports say the flight was around 16 nautical miles southwest of the airport before it turned back to attempted an emergency landing.
However as the plane touched down on the airstrip it soon burst into flames, destroying the aircraft and killing the pilot and co-pilot onboard.
Dramatic footage from the incident shows the jet scraping along the runway on its rear wheels before the aircraft bounced and erupted into a huge fireball.
The plane had been headed from the Dominican Republic’s south eastern coast to Austin, Texas, when the tragedy unfolded Sunday.
Emergency services rushed to the scene and operations at the airfield were cancelled as firefighters tackled the blaze.
The Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation (IDAC) stated in a press release: “The US-registered aircraft, registered to an executive aviation company, had its two crew members on board: the pilot and co-pilot. No passengers were reported.
“The aeronautical authorities activated the corresponding protocols and are conducting on-site investigations to determine the causes of the incident. Both the IDAC and the CIAA will provide additional information as the investigative process progresses.”
According to the Aviation Safety Network, a website run by the Flight Safety Foundation and which keeps track of aviation accidents, the plane was a Gulfstream G200 with the registration N318JF.
The G200 has capacity for up to 18 passengers but no-one other than the pilots are believed to have been onboard. The IDAC has yet to release the names of the two people who were killed in the crash.
The incident comes after at least 66 people were killed and dozens more injured when a Colombian military plane crashed into the Amazon rainforest moments after taking off.
There were 128 people, mostly soldiers, on board the Lockheed Martin Hercules C-130 plane when it took off from Puerto Leguizamo in southern Colombia in March.
Footage showed the plane descending to the ground shortly afterwards, in a section of dense jungle close to the border with Peru before exploding into flames in the jungle.
