2 People Dead After Small Plane Crashes into Car Dealership Parking Lot in Ohio
Two people are dead after a plane crashed Tuesday morning at a car dealership parking lot in Marietta, Ohio, according to officials.
Ohio State Highway Patrol said the victims were the pilot and a second occupant of the plane.
The authorities confirmed that Eric S. Seevers, 45, of Parkersburg, W.V., and Timothy F. Gifford, 49, from Orient, Ohio, were both killed.
"There are no reported injuries to individuals who were on the ground," the OSHP said in a press release, which noted "reported damage to multiple vehicles and buildings at the dealership."
The fatal crash occurred three miles northeast of the Parkersburg, West Virginia airport around 7:09 a.m., a spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The plane, a 1974 Beechcraft King Air E90, took off from John Glenn Airport in Columbus, Ohio, around 6:40 a.m., according to the official.
The NTSB spokesperson said that the airplane was approaching the Parkersburg Airport, had communicated with air traffic control and was cleared to land on a designated runway.
Following the reciprocal acknowledgment — only about 40 seconds later, according to the official — witnesses and videotape evidence "showed the airplane descending out of the sky at a very steep angle and impacting the ground," the spokesperson said.
RELATED: 4 Relatives Killed in California Plane Crash
Pioneer Buick GMC — the car dealership where the plane crashed into a parking lot, damaging multiple vehicles and buildings — shared a message about the accident on social media.
"We would like to express our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the two people who tragically lost [their] lives in the plane accident yesterday. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all," the business wrote on Facebook.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up to date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The crash remains under investigation, according to the NTSB spokesperson, who said at the press conference Wednesday that multiple agencies are working to determine how "human, machine and environment" contributed to the incident.
