The body of a child has been found in the wreckage of a small plane that crashed in Arizona's Superstition Mountains, creating a fireball captured on video.
Elias Johnson, a spokesman for the Pinal County sheriff, told ABC News today that deputies had found the body of one child between the ages of 5 and 9 during the night. Johnson said he did not know if it was the body of a boy or girl.
Three adults and three children were believed to be onboard the private aircraft, including a father and his three children, who he had just picked up for Thanksgiving in Mesa, Ariz. The plane was en route to Safford, Ariz., when it crashed Wednesday night in the jagged terrain of the Superstition Mountains.
'We do not believe anybody could have survived this crash," Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said at a news conference this morning, adding that he would not reveal the identities of the victims until the children's' mother and extended family members had been notified.
A full recovery team planned to begin searching for bodies and wreckage in the jagged terrain "at first light" and hoped to have the scene secure by 4 p.m. today, Babeu said.
"There's a window because of some storm concerns," he said. "Some of the evidence and wreckage is strewn for some distance."
Tim Hacker East Valley Tribune/AP Photo
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Watch Video The crash is believed to have involved a Rockwell AC69 twin-engine plane that had just departed from Falcon Field in Mesa, Ariz., according to the Federal Aviation Administration's Allen Kenitzer.
However, the identity of the plane still has not been confirmed.
"We have numerous conflicting reports at this time," Babeu said Wednesday night. "The best we can ascertain at this point -- it's a dual-engine aircraft."
The mountainous terrain will present a challenge in the recovery effort. The remains of the plane's fuselage were wedged vertically in a crevice-type formation that was not easily accessible, Babeu said.
Officials now believe the plane crashed before 5 p.m. local time. Earlier reports placed the time of the crash east of Phoenix later in the evening.
Local officials said earlier that crews were having difficulty reaching the crash scene on foot because of the ruggedness of the terrain.
"These are jagged peaks, almost like a cliff-type of ragged terrain," Babeu said.
Witnesses said they saw the plane crash, causing an eruption of flames.
"What we saw was a small plane," said Mark Klein, who lives at the base of the Superstition Mountains, according to ABC News Radio. "It only had the red and green lights on the wings on, and it just ran into the mountain. It looked like fireworks and then a big explosion."
A video posted on YouTube purported to capture the plane crash. It showed lights moving in the darkness and then a flash in the distance. A local resident told ABC News he took the video from his house in Gold Canyon, Ariz., about seven miles from the crash site.
Dark video transmitted from the scene after the crash appeared to show fires burning in the mountain terrain.
The FAA initially said it had no reports of a plane crash in the area, suggesting early on that the accident did not involve a large commercial plane. In addition, passenger flights at major area airports all were safe and accounted for, officials told ABC News shortly after the crash.
ABC News' Alicia Tejada, Lisa Stark and Matt Hosford contributed to this story.
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