LAFAYETTE, La. — Three people are dead after a small plane crashed Tuesday morning near Gloria Switch Road and Louisiana Highway 93, according to the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office.

The aircraft, a Beechcraft Baron twin-propeller plane, went down in a field shortly before 11 a.m. Deputies, firefighters and emergency responders arrived on scene, where the wreckage was found right behind a house.

According to FlightAware, an aircraft matching the plane's description and tail number N16PV, departed Hooks Memorial Airport near Houston around 10 a.m. The flight’s radar signal ended in the area of the crash roughly an hour later.

Witnesses reported seeing the aircraft circling before it went down.

“We got a report of a plane in the air circling before it crashed into a field. On board wer

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