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A plane was traveling over Texas on Thursday carrying a pickleball team to a tournament before it tragically crashed, killing all five people on board.
Names of the victims were not immediately released by authorities, although the Amarillo Pickleball Club in Amarillo, Texas, said they were members flying in for a tournament. The plane crashed in Wimberley, a town 40 miles southwest of Austin, at 11 p.m. Thursday.
“The pilot and four passengers on board were pronounced dead at the scene,” local police sergeant Billy Ray told reporters.
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Ray said federal authorities were leading the investigation.
Dan Dyer, president of the Amarillo Pickleball Club, said he had played many games with four of the five people who died.
“I’ve given them medals. They were outstanding players. They were out to win some games,” Dyer said. “Every weekend there are dozens of tournaments. Some people get the bug; others don’t. But once they do, they travel to a tournament.”
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Dyer said another plane left for the event from Amarillo at the same time. Authorities said it landed safely at the airport in New Braunfels, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of San Antonio.
“I haven’t heard anything from him,” the pilot of the other plane said, according to air traffic control audio.
A controller replied: “He started moving erratically and now his tracks have disappeared from the reticle. So we want to make sure everything is okay with him.”
At least one pilot in the area confirmed that the troubled plane’s locator had sent out a distress signal. The controller called 911.
It was mostly cloudy in the New Braunfels area shortly before the crash, and there was a thunderstorm two hours later, the National Weather Service said.
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Wimberley, with a population of about 3,000, and New Braunfels, with a population of about 116,000, are tourist destinations in the Texas Hill Country.
