(FRANKLIN) -- Five people are confirmed dead as Federal Aviation Administration Investigators continue sifting through the remains of a small engine plane that crashed Thursday afternoon at the end of the Macon County Airport runway. The identities of the victims have not been released, but Macon County Emergency Services said the aircraft was registered to Bogdan Jakubowski of Venice, Florida.

The plane had departed from a small airport in Venice, Florida, headed to Franklin, North Carolina. Two couples and a child were reportedly on board.

Emily Waldroop was near the airport as the plane approached the airport. She witnessed a fiery crash.

“The plane was not too far off the ground and tilted to one side and clip the wing; it then proceeded to tip over and just immediately exploded,” said Waldroop. She added that emergency personnel arrived on scene seconds after the crash.

Investigators have not ruled the official cause of the plane crash, but they say it appears the Cessna Citation 501 plane approached at a sharp angle.  The pilot then attempted to correct and the plane flipped and burst into flames.

(Thanks to: Keith Giles, WFSC-AM)