A private jet crashed and burst into flames while attempting an emergency landing in the Dominican Republic, in an accident captured on video that has spread widely on social media. The footage shows the aircraft coming down and the violent sequence that followed as the attempt to land safely failed, ending in a fatal crash on the ground.
In the images, the plane touches down and skids along the runway, appearing to almost bounce before its nose tilts sharply upwards. Moments later it erupts in a large fireball on impact, the explosion sending up a huge plume of fire that left little doubt about the severity of what had taken place during the landing attempt.
Both pilots on board were killed in the crash. The aircraft had been travelling to collect its passenger and had not yet done so, which meant the toll of the accident fell on the two crew members who were flying the jet when it came down and caught fire on the runway.
The flight had a high-profile destination. The Major League Baseball player Yadier Molina said the jet had been heading to Texas to pick him up, revealing that he had been the intended passenger of the aircraft that crashed. The disclosure drew further attention to an accident that was already circulating widely online and being shared across social media feeds.
Investigators have begun to establish what went wrong. According to their early account, one of the pilots declared an emergency shortly after taking off, and the crew then attempted to turn back and return to the airport they had just left. The emergency landing that this prompted ended in the explosion and the deaths of both men on board.
The circumstances that led the pilot to declare an emergency so soon after departure remain to be established, and the inquiry into the crash is continuing. For Molina, the news carried a personal dimension, with the aircraft that had been sent to collect him instead becoming the site of a deadly accident in which its two pilots lost their lives.