Five Killed In Melbourne Plane Crash

MEP: Five people have lost their lives after a plane crashed into a shopping centre near Melbourne’s Essendon Airport, authorities say.

The plane made a mayday call and tried to return to the airport before crashing in a massive fireball described by witnesses as ‘like an atomic bomb’.

The twin-engine aircraft, with five people on board, left the airport about 9am on Tuesday on its way to King Island.

“The pilot unfortunately attempted to return to Essendon but has crashed into the DFO at Essendon Fields,” a police assistant commissioner, Stephen Leane, told reporters.

The shopping centre was not open to the public at the time.

The ABC has confirmed the pilot was Max Quartermain, the co-owner of Corporate and Leisure Aviation, which owned the plane.