Atlanta officials say no survivors after small airplane crash

Atlanta Fire Rescue was working to confirm how many occupants were on board, but said in a brief statement that no one survived the afternoon crash near the Fulton County Airport.

The plane was a Cessna Citation V jet, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told The Associated Press.

The jet had departed from a runway at the airport and went down about 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) east of the airport shortly after noon, Bergen said. The airport itself is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of downtown Atlanta.

Firefighters were working to extinguish hot spots at the crash scene, the fire department said early Thursday afternoon.

Firefighters were also checking for possible injuries to anyone in the neighborhood, but no injuries on the ground were immediately reported.

The plane’s wreckage is in a park, not far from a small set of bleachers and the yellow goal post in the end zone of a football field, video from WAGA-TV shows. Most of the plane is badly burned. Its tail is one of the only parts of the aircraft that appears to be intact.

The airport, also known as Fulton County Airport-Brown Field, is a busy general aviation airport with an air traffic control tower and fire station. The airport averages a combined 164 takeoffs and landings each day.