Two people were killed after a Piper Cherokee PA-28 R180 crashed in southern Denton County on Saturday afternoon.
At about 2 p.m., the aircraft took off from Northwest Regional Airport to head south but instantly lost altitude and crashed into a wooded area in Northlake, about a half mile from the runway.
According to Texas Department of Public Safety, the plane’s fuselage crashed into the ground while the wings of the aircraft broke off and ended up in trees.
Both the pilot and a flying instructor died.
The plane’s owner, Christopher Pratt, 41, a licensed commercial pilot from Argyle, was killed on impact.
The instructor, Charles Yates, 63, of Grapevine, was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth by helicopter ambulance. He died less than a couple of hours later from injuries sustained in the wreck.
Pratt was reportedly training to become a flight instructor himself.