HOUSTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua)-- Five people were killed in a plane crash on Wednesday in Little Rock, southern U.S. Arkansas, while heading to the scene of a metal factory explosion in Ohio to provide environmental support, officials said.

The twin-engine Beech BE20 crashed in a wooded area shortly after taking off from Little Rock's Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Little Rock police said there were no survivors on board.

"We had a bad storm front move in at that time. I don't know if the two are related, but the winds were bad, the rain was bad for a few minutes," A spokesperson for Little Rock police said.

All the dead were employees of the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (CTEH), a Little Rock-based consulting firm.

"We are incredibly saddened to report the loss of our Little Rock colleagues," Paul Nony, senior vice president of CTEH, told ABC News in a statement.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.

One person died and 13 others were injured after an explosion rocked a metal manufacturing plant on Monday in Bedford, Ohio. Multiple communities reported a bad smell in the air following the incident. Enditem

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