According to news reports, the damage to the aircraft was so severe that it wasn’t possible to immediately judge how many people had been on board.
January 31, 2019 – 4:15 pm: At least one person was killed in a crash of a small airplane about 25 miles west of Houston on Thursday afternoon. The craft was a Mooney M20TN single-engine aircraft.
The crash took place in a wooded area in Harris County, near a residential development. Lynn Lunsford of the Federal Aviation Administration reports that the aircraft was headed from El Paso International Airport to West Houston Airport at the time of the crash.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez says the plane might have clipped a power line, leading to the crash.
Only one fatality has been confirmed at this time, but Richard Sandifer of the Texas Department of Public Safety reports that the damage to the plane was so extreme that it wasn’t immediately possible to determine how many people were aboard the four-seat craft. The identity of the one confirmed fatality has not been made public at this time.
The Department of Public Safety is still investigating the crash at this time.