A small airplane carrying at least two people crashed in Lake Hamilton, Arkansas on Monday morning.
In a Facebook post, the Garland County Sheriff’s Office said they received a call of a “small engine airplane that went down into Lake Hamilton” in the area of 161 Port-Au-Prince around 8.09 am local time.
Officials with the Garland County Sheriff’s Office, Arkansas State and the Hot Springs Police Department all responded to the scene and contacted the Hot Springs Fire Department, Lake Hamilton Fire Department, Piney Fire Department as well as dive teams in the Garland County Marine Patrol.
Once on the scene, law enforcement found a “responsive” female occupant of the plane and transported her to a local hospital for treatment.
Divers with the Hot Springs Fire Department also recovered a male passenger from the plane in the lake.
It is unclear what both passengers’ conditions are at this time.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said they were investigating the crash and confirmed that the plane was a Cessna 177 Cardinal, a single-engine aircraft.
Local journalist Rolly Hoyt from THV11 tweeted a photo saying that authorities confirmed the plane was completely submerged underwater.
“No part of the plane is visible,” Mr Hoyt wrote.
According to the Garland County Sheriff’s Office, the plane took off from Kentucky and requested permission to land at the Hot Springs airport due to “aircraft distress.”
“Once the plane did not land at the airport 911 authorities were contacted and were already in route to the location off Port-Au-Prince,” the sheriff’s office wrote.
