Several emergency responders remain onsite at the Wright Brothers National Memorial Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, around 6:30 p.m. (Photo by Anthony Leone)
By staff reports
KILL DEVIL HILLS — Multiple fatalities have been confirmed from a single-engine airplane crashing into a wooded area at Wright Brothers National Memorial’s First Flight Airport in Kill Devil Hills around 5 p.m. Saturday, according to a National Park Service release sent shortly after 8 p.m.
Eyewitnesses reported that the plane was attempting to land at the airport and that it caught on fire and burned following the crash, according to the park service’s release.
The Kill Devil Hills Fire Department along with other local fire departments extinguished the fire, and the First Flight Airport “is closed until further notice,” the release said.
A group of bystanders parked alongside the airport fence off Colington Road around 6:20 p.m. told Outer Banks Insider they had seen smoke earlier.
Two firetrucks left the scene before 6:15 p.m., but law enforcement still had the back road to the airport closed to the public.
A flight tracking app showed the plane had come from Dare County Regional Airport in Manteo.
What appears to be plane debris is seen in the trees by the First Flight Airport runway in Kill Devil Hills on the side closest to the Wright Brothers National Memorial on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (Photo by Anthony Leone)
“The National Transportation Safety Board, an independent federal agency charged with investigating civil aviation accidents in the United States, will investigate the incident,” the release continued. “The Federal Aviation Administration has also been notified.”
Wright Brothers National Memorial will be closed on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. The status of operations can be found on the park’s Facebook page, the release noted.
The flight path of the plane that crashed the evening of Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, appears in green. (Screenshot of route recorded by FlightAware app by Anthony Leone)
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