A twin-engine plane crashed at the North Little Rock Municipal Airport Thursday, killing one person on board and injuring another, authorities said.
The crash was reported shortly after 1:30 p.m. at the airfield's neighboring Central Arkansas Water facility off West Maryland Avenue, according to the North Little Rock Fire Department.
The Federal Aviation Administration was investigating Thursday, and the National Transportation Safety Board will work today to determine the crash's cause, officials said.
[GALLERY: Click here for photos from the scene of the crash]
Weather conditions at the time of the crash were clear, and because of visual flight rules, the pilots were not required to file a flight plan.
Neither of the people on board was identified Thursday, but the deceased was said to be in his 50s. The survivor was taken to the hospital with nonlife-threatening burns, according to officials.
According to the FAA's registry, the aircraft was registered to Lashbrook Inc. of Sherwood. According to the Arkansas secretary of state's website, Michael Lashbrook is the president of Lashbrook Inc.
Officials confirmed that the owner of the plane was not in the aircraft.
The six-seat Cessna 310 aircraft flew low over the water facility's water tanks and narrowly avoided a direct impact with a fuel tank, according to a witness.
Robert Martin, a safety specialist with Central Arkansas Water, was leaving the facility when the plane flew over him.
"I saw the plane approaching, it was coming pretty low, and actually the shadow went right over me. I thought, 'he is really low, I wonder if he is going to clear the tanks,'" Martin said. "Then I heard a 'whoosh.' I went out and saw the black smoke."
Martin then alerted emergency responders while he returned to the facility, where he saw the plane in flames. Flames had not yet reached the cockpit area before responders arrived, he said.
"I heard the boom," said Harry Barrett, owner of Barrett Aviation, a fix-based operator that provides aviation fuel, hangars, pilot training and aircraft maintenance at the airport. "I ran with everybody out of the hangar and saw the smoke."
He said the Cessna was being rented out for training. Instructors frequently used the plane -- a 1961 model -- to help students obtain their air transportation license, the highest-level pilot license under Federal Aviation Administration regulations and one that is required to qualify to be a pilot for major airlines. The aircraft had seen heavy use in the past six months, according to Barrett.
The plane's 55-year lifespan ended in a pile of charred wreckage. The plane's propeller-driven engines were separated from the fuselage, and patches of sooty ground indicated how the impact ignited the aircraft's fuel tank and set the wreckage ablaze.
At the time of the impact, the North Little Rock Fire Department's Special Operations Team was conducting technical rope training on the west side of the airfield. The team responded when they heard the crash and saw the fireball. The firefighters were able to extinguish the flames in minutes and pull the victims from the fuselage, said Battalion Chief John Pflasterer.
After the special operations team extricated the survivor from the wreckage, Pflasterer said the man was able to walk to the ambulance.
"Honestly, it's really a wonder that anybody walked away from this," Pflasterer said. "If you were to see this wreckage... I still don't even understand how somebody can walk away from it, so that pilot is extremely lucky."
Information for this report was provided by Noel Oman of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 05/06/2016