{"id":275791,"date":"2026-05-02T08:52:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T08:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/275791\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T08:52:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T08:52:23","slug":"plane-carrying-pickleball-players-crashes-in-texas-hill-country-killing-all-5-on-board-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/275791\/","title":{"rendered":"Plane carrying pickleball players crashes in Texas Hill Country, killing all 5 on board"},"content":{"rendered":"

WIMBERLEY, Texas \u2013 A small plane carrying pickleball players crashed among trees in Texas Hill Country, killing all five people aboard, authorities said Friday.<\/p>\n

The crash happened around 11 p.m. Thursday in Wimberley, a city about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Austin, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pilot and four passengers on board were pronounced deceased on scene,\u201d Sgt. Billy Ray told reporters.<\/p>\n

Names of the victims were not immediately released by authorities, though the Amarillo Pickleball Club in Amarillo, Texas, said they were members who were flying to a tournament. <\/p>\n

An unidentified woman wiped her eyes and fanned her face with her hands as she stood behind yellow police tape near the crash site Friday afternoon. A man consoled her.<\/p>\n

The plane, a Cessna 421C, took off from Amarillo and was headed to New Braunfels National Airport, according to the flight history. Aerial photos posted online<\/a> by the Austin American-Statesman showed the aircraft destroyed in a wooded area.<\/p>\n

Ray said federal authorities were leading the investigation.<\/p>\n

Stacey Rohr, who lives nearby, said she was in bed when she heard a crash and \u201cfelt everything vibrate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so close I felt like it was the back of my place up in flames,” said Rohr, who immediately called her landlord. <\/p>\n

The players were heading to a pickleball tournament at the Cranky Pickle in New Braunfels, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of San Antonio, said Martin Robertson, head pro at the venue.<\/p>\n

He said they canceled the tournament Friday and plan to say a prayer before they start Saturday and honor the players who died.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very heavy hearted, heartbroken from this,” he said. “The pickleball community is very tight knit. Everybody knows everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Dyer, president of the Amarillo Pickleball Club, said he\u2019d played many games with four of the five people who were killed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve handed them medals. They were excellent players. They were out to win some games,” Dyer said. \u201cEvery weekend there are dozens of tournaments. Some people get the bug; others don\u2019t. But once they do, they\u2019ll travel for a tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dyer said a second plane was traveling to the event from Amarillo at the same time. Authorities said it landed safely at the airport in New Braunfels.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven’t heard anything from him,\u201d the pilot of the second plane said, according to Air Traffic Control audio.<\/p>\n

A controller responded: “He started to move erratically and now his track is disappeared from the scope. So we want to make sure everything’s all right with him.\u201d <\/p>\n

At least one pilot in the area confirmed the troubled plane’s locator emergency device had emitted a distress signal. The controller called 911. <\/p>\n

It was mostly cloudy in the New Braunfels area shortly before the crash and there was a thunderstorm two hours later, the National Weather Service said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wimberley, with a population of about 3,000, and New Braunfels, with a population of about 116,000, are tourist destinations in the Texas Hill Country.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

White reported from Detroit. AP reporters Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WIMBERLEY, Texas \u2013 A small plane carrying pickleball players crashed among trees in Texas Hill Country, killing all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101721,27,29,28,1499],"class_list":["post-275791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-ruben-becerra","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}