.

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) – Three people were killed when a small plane crashed in a wooded area near the New Bedford Regional Airport on Friday night, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The victims’ names were not immediately released. The plane crashed at 7:45 p.m. about 1.5 miles west of the airport in the woods on the border of New Bedford and Dartmouth. It was cleared for landing at the airport.

“At some point as the aircraft was on final approach, we lost communication with it,” FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. “All three were killed.”

The turbo-prop Socata plane is owned by PK Leasing of Allentown, Pa., Peters said. It wasn’t immediately known where the plane took off, he said.

Saul Friedman, owner of a Gold’s Gym on Ventura Drive in Dartmouth near the airport, said he heard “a crackling noise” in the woods behind his gym.

Weather conditions were poor at the time of the crashhe said. “It’s thick fog, and raining. It’s coming down pretty good,” Friedman said.

said.adding that planes typically use the flight pattern over Ventura Drive in bad weather.

Friedman estimated the airport is two miles from Ventura Drive.

A call to the airport was not immediately returned. The airport has two runways, both about 5,000 feet long.

AP-ES-02-02-07 2218EST