A 12-year-old boy was among five people who died in the fiery crash of a small business jet near a suburban Phoenix airport, authorities said Wednesday.
Preliminary information indicated the six-seater HondaJet HA-420 aircraft was headed to Provo, Utah, when it aborted takeoff at the Falcon Field airport in Mesa on Tuesday afternoon. The plane crashed through the airport’s metal fence before colliding with a vehicle that was traveling on a road west of the airport, according to authorities.
It was not immediately clear why the plane was not able to take off. The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation with help from the Federal Aviation Administration and Mesa authorities.
Four of the five passengers aboard the jet died at the scene, Mesa police said Wednesday. The unidentified pilot was hospitalized with serious burn injuries.
Those aboard the plane included 12-year-old Graham Kimball and his 44-year-old father, Drew Kimball. The two other victims were Rustin Randall, 48, and Spencer Lindahl, 43, who were both listed as managers of Ice Man Holdings LLC, a company based in Mesa.
The driver of the vehicle also died at the scene. Authorities were withholding the person’s name pending positive identification.