A SINGLE ENGINE plane piloted by a seven year old girl who was trying to become the youngest person to fly across the United States crashed yesterday in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The girl, Jessica Dubroff, was killed together with her father and a flight instructor, who were travelling with her.
The plane, a Cessna Cardinal, 177, crashed in a residential area in a rainstorm soon after taking of Cheyenne Municipal Airport."
The single engine plane went down on a street in a commercial district within a larger residential neighbourhood but officials said no one was on the ground.
The cause of the crash was being investigated, but Mr Dick Royce, a spokesman for the local police, told CNN that "definitely, the weather is the cause" of the accident. Mr Royce noted there was heavy rain and hail in the area when the plane went down shortly after take off from the Cheyenne airport.
Other aircraft were reported have been landing and taking off from the airport at about the same time.
Jessica, her father and the flight instructor took off on Wednesday from Half Moon Bay airport, near San Francisco. They had been planning an eight day, 11,200 kilometre (7,000 mile) journey.
The itinerary was to include a stop in Washington where Jessica had hoped to visit President Bill Clinton, whom she had invited to take a trip in her plane.
"To visit you at the White House would be wonderful and clearly to pilot an airplane that you would be in would bring me an even greater, joy," the girl wrote in a letter that had not drawn a response.
It was her father who suggested the countrywide flight and footed, the $15,000 bill.