5 dead in small plane crash south of Austin, officials say

(WIMBERLEY, Texas) -- Five people were killed in a plane crash in Texas on Thursday night, investigators said.

Hayes County Judge Ruben Becerra said first responders received a call around 11:00 p.m. local time about a plane down in the area of Wimberley, which is roughly 30 miles southwest of Austin.

Fire and EMS crews found the downed Cessna 421C, along with the bodies of the five deceased passengers. Their identities were not immediately released.

Stacey Rohr lives in a house close to the crash site and told local reporters, including one from ABC affiliate KVUE, Friday morning that the crash rattled the neighborhood.

"It felt like an earthquake," she said.

Although a cause of the crash was not immediately determined, investigators said preliminary information shows that there was no midair collision.

"Preliminary information indicates the aircraft was traveling at a high rate of speed at the time of impact," Becerra said in a statement.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will take over the investigation, according to the judge.

The NTSB said in a statement that the Cessna was destroyed in a post-impact fire. An investigator is on the way to the scene, according to the agency.

Preliminary flight data obtained by ABC News found that the plane took off from Amarillo, Texas, which is about 420 miles northwest of the crash area, and was in the air for almost two hours before it crashed.

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