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Five members of a pickleball club who died after the small plane carrying them crashed in Texas<\/a> are being mourned by a tight-knit community of fellow players.<\/p>\n The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed Saturday that Justin Appling, Hayden Dillard, Brooke Skypala, Stacy Hedrick and Seren Wilson were on board the Cessna 421C that crashed Thursday night in Texas Hill Country. Appling was the pilot. <\/p>\n The aircraft had departed from Amarillo and was heading to New Braunfels National Airport. It crash-landed in Wimberley, a city about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Austin<\/a>, the Texas Department of Public Safety said. <\/p>\n The Amarillo Pickleball Club posted on its social media that the victims were members on their way to a pickleball tournament in New Braunfels.<\/p>\n Teammates who became more like family <\/p>\n Dillard and Appling, who went by the nickname Glen, were the owners of a manufactured home dealer in Amarillo. The business announced early Friday that it would be closed until Monday.<\/p>\n Sarah Lister got to know Dillard and Appling during pickleball tournaments and described them as both genuine people. She said Appling was always making them laugh and Dillard was an amazing businesswoman and mother.<\/p>\n She said Dillard has two daughters, one of whom was about to start college. Dillard and Appling had played mixed doubles for a long time together, and Skypala was Dillard\u2019s women\u2019s doubles partner, Lister said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pickleball world is super, super small, even though it\u2019s huge at the same time,\u201d said Lister. \u201cAnd when one of us has a tragedy like this, it\u2019s like it\u2019s the whole community that gets hit.\u201d<\/p>\n Leroy Clifford, a club member who had traveled to the tournament on another plane, considered all of them family, even though he’d only recently met Wilson. They had traveled to Pro Pickleball Association-sanctioned tournaments all over the country together, from Dallas<\/a> to Las Vegas. They bonded over being on the higher-end competitions of pickleball, but they also didn’t take themselves too seriously. <\/p>\n \u201cOne thing I can say about this group is this group, you wanted to be around this group. They were fun, carefree, not uptight, just relaxed, loved to joke with each other, make fun of each other,” Clifford said. \u201cYou couldn’t ask for better friends, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n He played the most with Skypala, who he described as quick-witted and a natural athlete.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was very witty, super sweet and very funny,\u201d Clifford said.<\/p>\n