FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ind. -- All three people aboard a small airplane are dead after it crashed Saturday evening northwest of Batesville.
A dog aboard the plane also died. Another dog survived, showed up at a nearby home and was taken to a local veterinarian to be treated for its injuries.
Watch drone footage of the wreckage in the player below:
The Indiana State Police is conducting a joint investigation with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
According to ISP Sgt. Stephen Wheeles, the single-engine Cessna was traveling from Kansas City, Missouri to Frederick, Maryland. It went down at about 9 p.m., crashing in some woods behind a home on North Hamburg Road. Cincinnati air traffic control reported an aircraft disappeared from radar in that area.
The plane had last taken off from an airport in Columbus, Indiana. Wheeles said it's not yet clear what caused the crash.
Firefighters were the first to arrive, to put out a fire. They said the rural landscape made efforts more difficult -- a circumstance that also will affect removal of the wreckage.
"It will be an ongoing scene for quite a while because you have the magnitude of the crash and the area where it's at, being such a wooded area, a little bit difficult to get to," Wheeles said.
Autopsies on the three victims are scheduled for Monday. Their names won't be released until the Franklin County coroner can confirm their identities and notify relatives, Wheeles said.
