One person died after a single-engine aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field on Sunday afternoon, both the airport and the Little Rock Fire Department confirmed.
“We got a report of the incident at approximately 1:15, 1:20 this afternoon,” said Chief Delphone Hubbard, a Fire Department spokesperson on Sunday.
The deceased was the only person on board the a single-engine Cirrus SR 22, according to a statement from the airport.
“It was a total loss,” Hubbard said.
The pilot of the aircraft reported an emergency shortly after departing the airport, and then the plane crashed north of the airport’s cargo building.
The identity of the pilot was being withheld Sunday pending notification of family members.
According to Hubbard, eight fire department units responded to the scene, including all three aircraft firefighting units, one battalion chief and an aircraft chief.
The airport was closed for nearly an hour before resuming normal operations.
Hubbard said the National Transportation Safety Board is handling the investigation and will release all information going forward. Board investigators were expected to travel to Little Rock on Monday to begin determining the cause of the crash, according to a news release from the airport.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s website states that a preliminary report is issued roughly two weeks after an accident. The preliminary report will contain factual information collected on the scene. The report will not contain a cause.
“Our thoughts are with the victim’s family and all impacted by this tragedy,” the airport stated in a post on Facebook.
The incident Sunday occurred almost exactly 11 months after a plane crashed after taking off from the airport on Feb. 22.
That crash involved a 1986 model Beech B200 twin-engine aircraft, N55PC, which took off from runway 18 and carried a pilot, four passengers and equipment bound for John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Ohio. Last year’s incident took place near a 3M plant.
All five people on board in last year’s crash were killed.
This story has been updated. It was originally published at 4:30 p.m.