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A small chartered plane has crashed into a shopping center shortly after takeoff from Melbourne’s Essendon airport.
Australian police said the plane had five people on board and all of them were killed in the crash.
The four passengers were from the United States, while the pilot was Australian.
Texan Greg Reynolds De Haven, 70, was among the passengers killed — his sister Denelle Wicht told CNN De Haven had been going on a golf outing with some friends during a three-week trip to Australia.
No one was inside the still-closed DFO shopping center when the plane went down around 9 a.m., officials said, but some nearby witnesses were being treated for shock.
“It was a catastrophic plane crash, that has taken a number of lives. But certainly if we look at the circumstances, we’ve been very lucky today depending on the time of day and who was around,” CNN quoted Stephen Leane, Assistant Commissioner of Victoria Police as saying.