A single-engine plane on Thursday crashed in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Arkansas, killing two people on board.

The Cessna 400 plane, which departed from McKinney, Texas and was bound for Franklin, North Carolina, crashed west of the Gurdon Lowe Field Airport and about 6.4 km east of Gurdon, a city in Clark County, according to Arkansasonline.

A spokesman for the state Department of Emergency Management said the agency received a report early Thursday afternoon of an aircraft that had reported engine trouble. The plane then began descending, and soon after, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lost contact with it.

The FAA confirmed the accident, saying a team will be sent to investigate the cause of the crash.

source: Xinhua