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Training plane crashes; two killed

ASHVILLE, Ala. — Two people were killed Friday when their plane crashed during a routine military training flight in St. Clair County, officials said.

Lori Aprilliano, spokeswoman for Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton, Fla., said two people died when the military training plane crashed near Ashville, Ala. around 3:45 p.m.

The victims’ names were being held pending notification of their families, she said.

They were flying a two-seat T-34C Turbomentor when it crashed into the side of Chandler Mountain in northern St. Clair County.

The aircraft was assigned to a training squadron out of Whiting Field and crashed about 60 miles away from Birmingham.

“People who called in said they heard this big loud ... explosion and when they looked up, they could see fire on the side of the mountain,” Bill Richvalsky, St. Clair’s 911 director, told The Birmingham News in a story on its Web site. “One of the people said that [the aircraft was] pretty well tore up.”

Aprilliano said the cause of the crash is unknown and the incident is under investigation.