JASPER, Ala. – Authorities believe that a trio of U.S. teenagers took a small airplane on a joyride with permission before it crashed, killing them all.
The plane crashed Tuesday night in Alabama.
“I think they were just looking for a thrill, and they had their last one,” Walker County sheriff’s Chief Deputy James Painter said.
The Piper PA 30 went down near the county airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.
The plane took off at night, and clouds were low, airport manager Edwin Banks said.
“It was a student pilot flying an airplane without permission, an airplane that he was not qualified to fly at night,” Banks said.
The teenage pilot had flown a single-engine airplane in the past, and the plane that crashed was a double-engine one, Banks said.
He declined to name the student before authorities release the victim’s identities.
The Associated Press
