A small single-engine plane carrying 6 passengers and a crew of two has crashed into the side of an empty two-storey office building in a Milan suburb, killing everyone onboard. Firefighters tweeted that no one other than those onboard was involved in the early afternoon crash near a subway station in San Donato Milanese, a small town near Milan.

Investigators opened an inquiry into what caused the private plane to crash shortly after take-off from Milan’s Linate airport en route to Olbia airport on the Italian island of Sardinia. A thick column of dark smoke rose from the crash site and was visible for miles. Several parked cars nearby went up in flames.

The official in San Donato Milanese, a suburb in the city saidthat a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft crashed on Sunday into a two-floor building that was being renovated, killing the pilot, co-pilot, and six passengers, including a child. Andrea Checchi, mayor of San Donato, called the crash "horrifying". According to news reports, none of the victims were Italian. Shortly after the flight took off from Milan's Linate Airport, the pilot issued a distress call shortly, according to local media reports.

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