Several people are dead after a small private jet crashed shortly after takeoff in Statesville, North Carolina, according to a local sheriff’s office official.

The crash happened shortly after 10:15 a.m., Iredell County Chief Deputy Bill Hamby told CNN. The exact number of fatalities is not known at this point, he added.

“A Cessna C550 crashed while landing at Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina around 10:20 a.m. local time on Thursday, Dec. 18. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The NTSB will lead the investigation and provide any updates,” the Federal Aviation Administration told CNN.

CNN has reached out to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Statesville Regional Airport, about 45 miles north of Charlotte, is an uncontrolled airport with no control tower. Pilots are required to self-report their position on and near the airport using a common radio frequency.

Preliminary flight tracking data shows a Cessna Citation 550 left Statesville Regional Airport around 10 a.m. from runway 10, traveled about five miles, then made a near-immediate left turn back toward the airport. The plane did not climb higher than 2,000 feet, according to FlightAware.

Low clouds, light rain, and visibility of less than three miles were reported about 80 minutes after the crash, according to an automated weather station at the airport. It is not clear if these conditions were present when the plane crashed.

“The Statesville Regional Airport provides corporate aviation facilities for Fortune 500 companies and several NASCAR teams,” according to the city website

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A 42-year-old North Carolina man on Tuesday was extradited to Pennsylvania after state police said he stole more than $100,000 from ATMs in Snyder and Union counties.

Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, Antoni J. Garcia-Cordoba, of Raleigh, North Carolina, stole from four ATMs at Central Penn Bank and Trust locations, state police said.

In a five-hour span, Garcia-Cordoba took $43,000 from three separate ATMs in Snyder and Union counties, according to a police report. On Oct. 1, he stole an additional $58,000 from an ATM in Titusville, bringing the total amount stolen to $101,000.

Garcia-Cordoba is charged with two counts of corrupt organizations – employee, a first-degree felony, and two counts of theft by unlawful taking, a third-degree felony.

After being in custody at a jail in Boone County, Missouri, Garcia-Cordoba was extradited to Union County on Tuesday.

He is being held in the Union County Prison after being unable to post $100,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2026.

SALISBURY, N.C. — Eleven firefighters and two other people were injured in a house fire explosion in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, officials said.

Salisbury Fire Chief Bob Parnell said firefighters did not have life-threatening injuries but were getting treated for contusions, concussions and smoke inhalation following the fire Monday evening. Two other people were taken to the hospital, but Parnell said he didn’t know their conditions and couldn’t confirm whether they were in the house at the time of the fire.

The Salisbury Fire Department responded to the single-family home around 5 p.m. and found it engulfed in flames.

Eleven of the 22 firefighters at the scene went inside the house to search for occupants and “get water on that fire,” which preceded the explosion, Panell said at a news conference.

“It was enough force that the outside walls blew out, the roof came up and went back down,” Parnell said.

An investigation of the fire and explosion is continuing.