Tiny plane that flew to Arkansas for eclipse crashes on way home fewer than 2 minutes into return flight
A small plane carrying four people home from a trip to watch the solar eclipse crashed in Arkansas on Monday, the local airport manager said.
The Twin Navion aircraft had flown the group to the Clarksville Municipal Airport in Arkansas so they could witness the spectacular totality in the western part of the Razorback State, longtime airport manager Jim Looney told The Post.
The group then boarded the plane to head back home and took off from the same airport, only to crash fewer than 2 minutes later, around 2:15 p.m., Looney said.
All four people survived but were injured and were airlifted to a hospital for treatment, he said.
“It’s not from here,” Looney said of the crashed plane. “They just flew in for the eclipse.”
Looney estimated about 15 planes touched down at the Clarksville airport to watch the stunning natural airshow.
“And when it was over, they all fired up and were leaving,” he said. “Most of them were here for an hour or two.”
The city, which has a population of around 10,000 people, was a hot spot Monday for visitors because of its prime location to watch the eclipse.
Everything to know about the 2024 solar eclipse
- The solar eclipse will take place Monday, April 8, blocking the sun for over 180 million people in its path.
- The eclipse will expand from Mexico’s Pacific Coast across North America, hitting 15 US states and pulling itself all the way to the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
- New Yorkers will experience the solar eclipse just after 2 p.m. Monday.
- A huge explosion on the sun, known as a coronal mass ejection, is anticipated, according to experts. This happens when massive particles from the sun are hurled out into space, explains Ryan French of the National Solar Observatory in Boulder, Colorado.
- To avoid serious injury to the eyes, it is necessary to view the event through proper eyewear like eclipse glasses, or a handheld solar viewer, during the partial eclipse phase before and after totality.
- The next total solar eclipse will take place on Aug. 12, 2026, and totality will be visible to those in Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia and a small slice of Portugal.
It is unclear what caused the crash. Looney said he spoke to two witnesses, and there is speculation that the small plane may have lost power in an engine.
“They were in the air, they cleared the trees that were on the side of the runway … they weren’t even to the end of the runway yet,” he said.
“They were airborne probably halfway down the runway, and then two-thirds down the runway, they lost an engine and … they went into the trees and into a large forested area.”
Looney, who is also part of the local fire department, assisted in the rescue of the four occupants, who were all conscious when he reached the scene.
First responders had to extricate them from the plane by popping the canopy off, he said.
Johnson County Sheriff Tom Hughes confirmed to KFSM that four people were injured in the crash but didn’t know where the plane was heading.
