A 12-year-old boy was among five people who died in the fiery crash of a small business jet near a suburban Phoenix airport, authorities said Wednesday.
Preliminary information indicated the six-seater HondaJet HA-420 aircraft was headed to Provo, Utah, when it aborted takeoff at the Falcon Field airport in Mesa on Tuesday afternoon. The plane crashed through the airport's metal fence before colliding with a vehicle that was traveling on a road west of the airport, according to authorities.
Aviation International News said data shows the HondaJet accelerated to more than 153 mph on a 5,100-foot runway before taxiing about 1,300 feet from the end of the runway. The jet then slowed to about 118 mph by the runway's end.
Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for Flightradar24 that shows air traffic in real time, said the HondaJet was traveling 78.25 mph at its last recorded position before the crash.
It was not immediately clear why the plane was not able to take off. The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation with help from the Federal Aviation Administration and Mesa authorities.
