Plane crashes into eastern Arizona school

A small plane nosedived into a high school in a small eastern Arizona town Friday afternoon and exploded, but there were no reports of injuries on the ground, with classes out for the summer.

The Cessna circled the area two or three times before it suddenly crashed into the main building at Round Valley High School in Eagar at about 2 p.m., Apache County sheriff’s Sgt. Richard Guinn said.

Officials do not know who was flying the plane, but Guinn said there was no sign it was anything but a normal flight.

“From what we’ve been able to ascertain, it was just an afternoon flight of a pleasure craft,” Guinn said.

Two hours later, flames were still erupting 20 to 30 feet above the roof of the two-story school.

There was no indication that anyone was inside the school when the plane crashed. Guinn did not have information about how many people may have been on the plane, but there was no sign of survivors.

Fire crews from nearly a dozen small towns in the region raced to battle the flames. Officials evacuated homes in neighborhoods east and north of the school.

The school serves about 500 students in Eagar and nearby Springerville and is about 200 miles east of Phoenix. The blaze was contained to the main school building.

State Treasurer Dean Martin, who was in Eagar, said he and others left their vehicles at the school before heading out on a forest tour. They drove off just minutes before the plane hit and looked in the rearview mirror to see smoke rising into the sky.

“Initially we thought someone tossed a cigarette butt,” said Martin, a state gubernatorial candidate. “But shortly after, there was this massive fireball.”

A 6 p.m. event scheduled at the high school was moved to another building.