5 dead after a small plane crashes on Santa Catalina Island off the Southern California coast

A small plane lands on Catalina's Airport in the Sky as the U.S. Marines and Navy Seabees rebuild the mountaintop runway on storied Santa Catalina Island, Calif., Friday, Jan. 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

AVALON, Calif. — Five people were killed when a small plane crashed during takeoff from Santa Catalina Island off the Southern California coast, authorities said Wednesday.

The twin-engine Beechcraft 95 crashed shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday, just moments after it departed from Catalina Airport near the island city of Avalon, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Five people were on board, the FAA said. Five adults were found dead at the scene in steep, rugged terrain about a mile (1.6 kilometres) west of the airport, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said.

The crash occurred under “unknown circumstances” during takeoff, and those killed were the pilot and four passengers, the FAA said later in an online incident report. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.

Emergency crews responded after the Avalon Sheriff Station received a 911 emergency notification from a cell phone, officials said.

“The cellular device stated the user’s cellphone has been involved in a collision with possible injuries and provided a location as GPS coordinates,” the sheriff's department said in a statement.

The airfield is known as the Airport in the Sky because of its precarious location at an elevation of 1,602 feet (488 metres) on the island about 25 miles (40 kilometres) off the coast of Los Angeles. It has a single 3,000-foot (914-metre) runway.

About 4,000 residents live year-round on Santa Catalina Island, where tourists from the mainland are drawn for snorkeling, boating, hiking and strolling the picturesque streets of the oceanfront city of Avalon.