Officials ID 4 victims killed in airplane crash in Texas

HILLTOP LAKES, Texas – Texas officials on Monday released the names of four people from Louisiana who authorities said were killed when their single-engine airplane crashed in a Texas pasture while attempting an emergency landing.

The crash happened Sunday morning near the airport in Hilltop Lakes, about 120 miles (193 kilometres) northwest of Houston. The Texas Department of Public Safety, which has already said that all four people aboard the aircraft were killed, identified the victims as: 59-year-old Philip Ackel and 60-year-old Pauline Ackel, both of Natchitoches, and Kenneth Hix and Missy Lynn Hix, both 59 and from Lafayette.

Leon County Sheriff Kevin Ellis told The Eagle newspaper that the plane was attempting to make an emergency landing and was in radio contact with the Federal Aviation Administration at the time of the crash.

The plane had taken off from Horseshoe Bay Resort, west of Austin, and was headed to Natchitoches, Louisiana, according to flight records. The plane was registered to a corporation in Lafayette, Louisiana.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday it was investigating the crash.