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Plane crash at Norfolk Botanical Garden in Virginia kills three

By Danielle Haynes

NORFOLK, Va., March 4 (UPI) -- The bodies of three people were pulled from a single-engine airplane after it crashed Wednesday morning at the Norfolk Botanical Garden.

The Mooney 20 four-seat aircraft was about two miles from Norfolk International Airport when it lost communication with the control tower, Virginia State Police Battalion Chief Julian Williamson told WVEC-TV, Norfolk.

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"I think we just had an aircraft go down two miles northwest of Norfolk International Airport. He was on final approach, had the field in sight, he was cleared to land. I'm not in communication with him now. He was two miles northwest of the field," the air traffic controller said, according to radio transmissions.

Law enforcement officials and the U.S. Coast Guard searched for the plane for about three hours before it was discovered in the Enchanted Forest section of the botanical garden. All three occupants were dead and the plane was intact.

The plane took off just before midnight Tuesday from Palatka, Fla., and was bound for Suffolk, Va., Executive Airport at 3:23 a.m. It's unclear why the plane was still in the air after 4 a.m. and why it was attempting to land in Norfolk about 36 miles away from Suffolk.

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Visibility near the crash site at the time of the incident was below a mile.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the cause of the crash.

The incident led to the temporary closure of the botanical garden, according to the center's Facebook page.

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