Pilot Sean Sweeney, Micah Kendrick, Kyle Bennett, Gunter Beaty, and Glenmarkus Walker die in small aircraft crash in Little Rock, Arkansas

 Five employees of an environmental consulting firm died when a small airplane they were traveling in crashed near a Little Rock factory on Wednesday shortly after taking off, authorities said.

The environmental consultant company CTEH later confirmed in a statement to CBS News that all five people aboard, including the pilot, were CTEH employees out of its Little Rock office. 

The twin-engine plane crashed outside a 3M plant in Little Rock, a couple of miles south of Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Cody Burk said.

The twin-engine plane crashed and burst into flames shortly after takeoff near the Little Rock airport, the National Transportation Safety Board told CNN in an emailed statement.