It was not immediately known what caused the accident, which left the plane charred to nearly a skeleton in the middle of a scorched field about 40 miles southeast of Dallas.

No one else besides the three killed were on board, Kaufman County Sheriff's spokesman Bryan Francis said. Names of the victims were not immediately released.

Shelley Bradley told The Dallas Morning News that she was standing near the small private grass airstrip when the plane dipped its wings and lost airspeed.

"He took off and the wind changed," Bradley said. "He should have banked to the right but he banked to the left. He was flapping his wings as if he was saying goodbye, but then we realized he was in trouble."

Firefighters from four nearby departments responded to the crash late Saturday afternoon, Francis said. The Federal Aviation Administration was investigating.