A plane crash in Arizona killed four people from Central Texas.

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KVUE's Jessica Vess reports

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Word of the crash spread quick through Austin's aviation community.

"It hits home. Everybody kind of takes it personally," said Mark Lauck of RJ Enterprises out of the Lago Vista airport.

Lauck restores helicopters inside his hangar at the Rusty Allen Airport in Lago Vista. The hangar is about 100 yards away from where David Tuntland, 45, kept his plane.

"(Tuntland was a) really nice guy, pleasant. It's just, it's kind of hard to handle, you know you talk to someone recently and the next thing you know they're just gone. It is a loss," said Lauck.

Tuntland was flying a twin engine Beechcraft. A spokesperson at Rusty Allen Airport says it was a Travel Air.

She says a family hired Tuntland to charter them from Lakeway to California to pick up their child. The group was on their way back into town Wednesday night when they stopped to re-fuel in Arizona.

The Federal Aviation Administration says Tuntland had gotten sick on the plane. He stopped at an airport in Holbrook, AZ to rest and refuel.

When he took off to head back into Austin, the FAA says the plane crashed into a desert field a quarter of a mile from the runway. It caught fire. Tuntland and the family died.

"It's usually some type of mechanical, in a twin it could have been an engine failure, he could have lost control," said Beth Jenkins, owner of Pilot’s Choice Aviation in Georgetown.

Jenkins knew Tuntland. She helped train him to fly in 2001. She says he was a good pilot.

"I just found out about it. It's sad to hear that we've lost somebody we know," said Jenkins.

Those who knew Tuntland agree. A spokesperson at Rusty Allen say he flew in at least five Hurricane Katrina relief missions in 2005.

FAA investigators are still investigating what caused Tuntland’s plane to crash Wednesday night. They have not positively identified any of the victims. A spokesperson says there will need to be DNA testing to confirm their identities.