Plane Crash at Long Beach Airport

There are some dramatic pictures being shown on local TV of a plane that has crashed at Long Beach Airport:

A twin engine plane crashed and exploded into a fireball at Long Beach Airport, killing two people on board, according to Cal Fire.

The accident happened at 10:30 a.m. as the plane was taking off.

A witness reported seeing a large fireball after the impact.

The plane was a twin engine Beechcraft King Air, according to authorities.

The plane is capable of carrying up to 13 people, but initial reports indicated only two people were on board.

A King Air is a twin turboprop aircraft often used for short and medium haul corporate transportation, or for charter flights.  It typically flies with a crew of two pilots.

UPDATE:  Now reporting 2 dead in the cockpit, 3 dead in the cabin and one transported to the hospital.

Reports now indicate that the plane took off and apparently circled the field and attempted to return for landing. The plane was clearly on fire before it came to a stop.  There's a large streak of burned grass leading from the runway to where the plane came to a stop.  You'll note from the picture that the entire tail section of the aircraft had separated from the fuselage.

The plane was reported to be enroute to Salt Lake City.

From the pictures I saw of the separated v-shaped horizontal stabilizer, it appears this was a Super King Air.  The plane below is not the plane that was in the crash, but a similar model:

UPDATE: Some of the victims were prominent members of the Long Beach community:

The Long Beach Press-Telegram reported Jeff Berger, Thomas Dean and Mark Bixby, a member of one of Long Beach's founding families, were among those killed in the crash.

The lone survivor, Mike Jensen, was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

"It appears it was circling back to make a landing and was unable to complete the maneuver," Long Beach Fire Department spokesman Jeff Reeb said.

The plane is owned by Dean, a developer who owns most of the Los Cerritos Wetlands in southeast Long Beach.

Along with their role in Long Beach's development, the Bixby family has historic ties with several communities in northern Orange County. Land once owned by the Bixby Land Co. became Los Alamitos, and the company also owned large portions of Seal Beach.