2 dead after plane crashes in Fredericksburg, officials say

Two people who were flying in a vintage World War II fighter plane on Saturday afternoon are dead after the aircraft crashed into the parking lot of a Fredericksburg apartment complex, officials said.

Gillespie County sheriff's officials said they were called to the crash at 3:15 p.m., which occurred at the Friendship Place Apartments on the 700 block of South Creek Street.

Two people were reported to be on board the aircraft, Federal Aviation Administration officials said. Texas Department of Public Safety officials said both died in the crash.

The victims have not been identified, but the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, which was hosting a reenactment show that appears to have featured the WWII vintage P-51D Mustang fighter plane, said on a tweet Saturday that one of the victims was a veteran.

Justin McDonald, who owns the company that manages Friendship Place Apartments, said no residents were injured in the crash. It was not clear immediately whether anyone else was injured.

The plane crashed against several vehicles parked at a carport. The FAA said the fighter plane was destroyed and several automobiles were damaged.

The Pacific War museum, which is about a mile away from where the crash happened, was hosting its November WWII Pacific Combat Program on Saturday. It included battlefield reenactments showcasing the equipment and weapons used in the war.

Regina Auais Vales, who drove from Austin to see the show, said the plane was part of the museum’s program and had flown several times over the field where the reenactment took place.

Toward the end of the program, Auais Vales said the plane did a 360-degree flip that looked forced. Then it dropped sharply into a nosedive until it disappeared behind a line of trees “and never came back up,” she said.

The flip “looked like it was part of the show, but such a sharp drop obviously wasn’t,” Auais Vales said.

The audience didn’t hear the crash over the sound of the show’s music, and they never saw smoke come up, she said. Sirens were heard shortly after, but the show ended without mention of the crash, Auais Vales said. It wasn’t until she was on her way back to Austin that a relative called her and told her about the crash, she said.

Resident Marc Vetti, who lives two buildings away from where the plane crashed, said he was in his bedroom at the time of the crash.

“I heard a bunch of kids screaming ‘oh my God’ and an engine sputtering,” he said. “As it got closer, I realized it was a plane.”

Vetti said he ran outside as quickly as he could and saw the plane coming down in a spiral over one of the apartment buildings before it crashed and bounced toward the carport.

Vetti, who was on a lunch break from work, said he drives in the direction of the carport when he leaves.

“I’m in slight shock because I was supposed to get back to work when it hit the ground,” he said. “If I had, I’d be with those two people.”

Azaria McCarver, 11, said she was playing outside with friends when she witnessed the plane crash.

“At first it was doing tricks so we were waving to it and it got down so low we could actually see the person waving,” she said. “He went back into the sky and then it crashed.”

McCarver said the impact of the crash shook several properties and was loud enough for her to cover her ears.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said the two victims of the crash were veterans. The National Museum of the Pacific War later clarified that only one of the victims was a veteran.