Aerostar Plunges Into Golf Course Mansion

Six people are dead after their Aerostar 601 crashed into a golf course mansion near Austin (TX) Tuesday. The home was virtually destroyed, but none of the three people inside at the time of the crash was hurt. Authorities said the victims aboard the Aerostar included four adults and two children, although their identities weren't immediately known.

The mansion and the golf course on which it sits are less than two miles from a private airstrip. There was no immediate indication if the aircraft went down while trying to land or struggling to take off.

"It was apparent when we got here there were no survivors," said Warren Hassinger, who speaks for Austin-Travis County Emergency Management Services. Witnesses said the aircraft inside the home was in "very small pieces."

One neighbor said the homeowner was on a patio when he spotted the aircraft approaching. The neighbor said he ran into the house, grabbed his wife and ran out of the front door.

Another witness said he thought the aircraft was having trouble climbing.

"He was kind of holding the same altitude and you could hear the engine struggling, but he couldn't pick up at all," Michael Pickford told News 8 Austin. "The back of the plane started to wobble a little bit and that's when he kind of started turning ... and probably about 45 seconds after he took off, that's when the engine cut off. He just did a huge nose dive, straight into the ground and ended up a little bit into the back of the house."

It was the second time in two days five or more people died in a GA accident. Sunday, a Piper PA-32 went down in an aborted take-off at College of the Ozarks in Missouri.

FMI: www.faa.gov