(KTLA) — All five people on a small plane that went down on Catalina Island Tuesday night were killed in the crash, officials confirmed Wednesday.
The Avalon Sheriff Station received an S.O.S. emergency notification from a cellphone that had been involved in a collision with possible injuries shortly after 8 p.m., the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department stated.
The notification provided authorities with GPS coordinates, allowing deputies to respond to the location along with firefighters and Avalon Search and Rescue personnel.
"Under a unified command, they were able to locate the wreckage of a twin-engine aircraft approximately one mile west of Catalina Island Airport," the Sheriff's Department stated.
Five victims, all adults, were located at the crash site and pronounced dead at the scene.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was a twin-engine Beechcraft 95 that crashed shortly after takeoff with five people on board.
No details regarding the identities of the victims have been released but the plane was registered to a flight school out of Santa Monica Airport.
There was no word on a possible cause of the crash.
"The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide further updates," the FAA also said in its statement.
Catalina Island Airport is primarily used for general aviation aircraft, including single-engine airplanes, and is known as the "Airport in the Sky" because of its elevation of 1,602 feet. It has a single, 3,000-foot runway.
