Small plane crash kills 3 in northern Ark.

LAKEVIEW (AP) A small plane taking off from a private airstrip at a popular trout fishing site crashed Friday morning, killing three people and injuring two others, authorities said.

Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery said that the plane crashed at about 9 a.m. after taking off from the turf runway at Gaston's White River Resort, in northern Arkansas. Montgomery said one injured person was flown to a hospital in Springfield, Mo., and two others were taken to a hospital in Mountain Home.

Montgomery said two victims died at the scene and the third died at Mountain Home hospital. He said deputies knew the victims' names but wanted notify their families before making the names public.

Witnesses told the Baxter Bulletin newspaper that three teenage boys and two men were aboard the plane, a Piper Cherokee Lance. They said the aircraft wobbled and tilted from side to side as it tried to take off from the grass runway.

"We're not sure if it didn't gain enough altitude or if it ever gained altitude," Montgomery said.

The plane smashed through a fence at the end of the runway and crashed into a small grove of trees alongside the White River. The plane's fuselage apparently broke away and landed about 20 feet from the wreckage.

"The aircraft contacted trees on takeoff," said Roland Herwig, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. He said agents from the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board would investigate.

The plane is registered to Propaire Inc., a nonprofit organization based in St. Louis. A Web site for the organization described it as a club "devoted to the world of general aviation."

A phone number registered to the club was disconnected.

In 2002, a small plane crashed shortly after taking off from the airstrip, killing all three on board.