The pilot of a small experimental plane died when the aircraft crashed in a neighborhood in Granbury on Friday afternoon.
The single-engine Van's RV-6A plane came down along Orchard Drive and struck a tree in the side yard of a vacant home on the corner of Orchard and Long drives.
The pilot's wife is in serious condition at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital. Neighbors said the couple was traveling to North Texas to attend a relative's high school graduation.
Lynn Lunsford, of the Federal Aviation Administration, said the plane was attempting to land at the Pecan Plantation Airport at about 1 p.m. when it crashed. The crash site is only a few hundred feet from runway 18.
Charles Brownlee saw the crash from a nearby golf course at Pecan Plantation, a gated community near Granbury. Brownlee said he heard a loud thud but did not see any smoke or a fire.
He said everything looked normal until the plane made a sudden turn and nosedived.
There were no reports of anyone on the ground being injured in the crash.
"I feel really horrible and sad," neighbor Nicole Gazda said. "I mean, nothing like that ever happens here."
The plane's tail number is N226MH. The FAA shows that plane is owned by Michael A. Henney in Parker, Colo. It is not yet known who was on the plane or who may have been injured.
The RV-6A is a experimental, tricycle gear kit aircraft that was first introduced in 1986.
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The cause of the crash is under investigation.
NBCDFW's Ashanti Blaize and Scott Gordon contributed to this report.
