Two people were killed in a small plane crash in Ellis County Sunday morning.
The Ellis County Sheriff's Department and Texas Department of Public Safety responded to the crash off Farm-to-Market Road 984 and Gorman Road near the Navarro County line around 10:45 a.m. after 911 callers reported a plane in distress and black smoke in the area.
Witnesses said the plane appeared to be trying to make an emergency landing, but then stalled and collided with a tree before catching fire.
The crash site was south of the Ellis County town of Bardwell.
Federal Aviation Administration reports said the plane was a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza. DPS and FAA confirmed only two people were in the plane when it went down. At this time, the names of the pilot and passenger have not been released.
FAA reports said the aircraft was destroyed by a post-crash fire. No cause for the crash was listed by the FAA's preliminary report.
The National Transportation Safety Board will be leading the investigation into the crash. That group's investigator is scheduled to be on scene Monday.
