A plane flying from Melbourne to Australia's King Island crashed into a shopping centre in Essendon, a suburb of northern Melbourne on Tuesday, killing all five people on board, including the pilot, shortly after taking off from Melbourne's Essendon Airport around 9 AM local time on Tuesday. According to local police, The twin-engine Beechcraft B200 Super King Air is suspected to have suffered engine failure.
The plane crashed into the back of a furniture store and a JB Hi-Fi store in the DFO shopping centre, leaving the parking area in flames and killing the pilot, identified as US citizen Max Quartermain, and all four passengers, who have also been identified as US citizens. Pilot Max Quartermain was the co-owner of Corporate and Leisure Aviation, the company which operated the plane. He had a perfect 38-year safety record.
According to unconfirmed reports, there were no casualties on the ground. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating the incident.
