4 Dead in Sioux Falls Small-Plane Crash

SIOUX FALLS, S.D – A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman says a small plane has crashed near the Sioux Falls airport in South Dakota, killing four people.

Tony Molinaro tells The Associated Press that the downed plane was a Cessna 421-C. The small, two-engine plane departed Joe Foss Field at 2:24 p.m. Friday and was headed to Rapid City. He says it crashed soon after takeoff, about a mile west of the field.

Sioux Falls Police Chief Jim Sideras declined to identify the three passengers and pilot pending family notification.

Sideras says the wreck is "a shell of a plane" and the amount of fire involved in the crash "is not survivable."