Plane crashes in Arizona, killing 4

A small medical transport plane crashed and caught fire on the Navajo Nation in Arizona, killing four people, local authorities said in a statement. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and CSI Aviation, the Beechcraft King Air 300 plane, carrying two pilots and two medical personnel, crashed near Chinle Airport, about 300 miles (483 kilometers) northeast of Phoenix, after taking off from Albuquerque, New Mexico. “The plane was attempting to land there, but unfortunately there was some malfunction,” said local police commander Emmet Yazzie. Sheren Sandoval, director of the Navajo Department of Emergency Management, said the crew was planning to pick up a patient from the Federal Indian Health Service Hospital in Chinle and was scheduled to return to Albuquerque. Sandoval said authorities began receiving reports of black smoke at the airport at 12:44 p.m. local time on Tuesday (August 5). The Navajo Nation said the cause of the crash is still unknown. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the FAA are investigating the incident.