KCBD is reporting a local doctor is dead after a plane that crashed near the NBC affiliate’s studio last night hit the station’s tower.
The Lubbock, Texas NBC affiliate says it was knocked off the air after the crash around 7:30 p.m. The station was evacuated. No one at KCBD was injured.
From KCBD:
We have received this statement from the FAA:
A single-engine Piper PA-46 crashed while on approach to Lubbock’s Preston Smith International Airport. The aircraft dropped off radar screens about 7:30 p.m. local time.
The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed a crash site inside the city limits of Lubbock.
FAA investigators are on their way to the site. The National Transportation Safety Board has been notified.
Alex DeLeon was in the KCBD parking lot when the tower went down. He says he witnessed the entire incident.
“The antenna or tower just collapsed into two… I saw it falling this direction, so I got under this awning here, and I just felt like it was over me,” DeLeon said.
A number of drivers were passing through the area and say they saw it from Avenue A.
We also spoke with John Houston, who examined the KCBD tower.
“A friend called me and he had seen a bunch of sparks,” Houston said. “He said it fell and I knew right away that it wasn’t just collapsed because of the wind or anything like that.
“He said it threw sparks. Usually they don’t just fall and they’re pretty quiet when they fall… usually ice or wind can take them down but in this case, I knew it was something different.”
We are broadcasting from an alternate location at LISD-TV.