Wesley Harris, Julie Lefevre, Robert Harris, and Philip Cowger dead in small plane crash into residential yard on Van Horn Road in Pope County, Arkansas

 Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Kathy Wright says the small plane crashed Thursday morning in a resident’s yard near the town of Pottsville, about 70 miles northwest of Little Rock. Wright says the plane took off Thursday morning from a small airport in Russellville. It wasn’t immediately clear who owned the plane or its intended destination. 

Three people have died in a plane crash in Pope County outside of Pottsville Thursday morning, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Emergency Management said. The three were flying in a small aircraft that took off from nearby Russellville Airport and crashed in a residential yard, spokeswoman Kathy Wright said. The accident happened off of Van Horn Road.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford says the Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft took off from the Russellville Regional Airport and was headed to Knoxville, Tennessee. Authorities initially reported three fatalities in the crash, but a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration says the aircraft was destroyed by fire. The sheriff says all four people were discovered dead at the scene. Pope County Sheriff Shane Jones says four people were aboard the plane when it crashed in a rural residential area near the town of Pottsville, about 70 miles northwest of Little Rock.

The Pope County coroner said it will take several days for DNA tests to confirm the identities of four victims of Thursday's plane crash near the Russellville airport. Coroner Danny White said the family members of those believed to be aboard the Beechcraft Bonanza have been notified of the accident. The plane bound for Knoxville with four people on board was headed to a funeral, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported Friday. The crash occurred at the base of Crow Mountain shortly after the plane took off from Russellville Regional Airport at 7:45 a.m. Medical examiners have not determined if the victims died from the impact of the crash or the subsequent fire.