Five employees of an environmental consulting firm died when a small airplane they were traveling in crashed outside an industrial area of Little Rock on Wednesday shortly after the plane took off, authorities said.

The twin-engine plane crashed several miles south of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Cody Burk said. The Federal Aviation Administration said five people were on board the plane.

The twin-engine plane crashed a couple of miles south of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Cody Burk said. The Federal Aviation Administration said five people were on board the plane.

The Beech BE20 had departed the Little Rock airport and was headed to John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, the FAA said.

Burk did not immediately release the names or ages of the people on the plane. The FAA said it and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.

CTEH, an environmental consulting firm based in North Little Rock, said the five people on board the plane — including the pilot — were its employees. A company spokesman said the employees were responding to an explosion at an Ohio metals plant this week that killed one worker and sent more than a dozen to the hospital.