AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File

Three people from the Houston area died Tuesday when the small airplane they were flying in crashed in Louisiana.

Justin Ramsey, 42, and Bruce Verduyn, 58, both of The Woodlands, and Spring resident Lydia Laws, 46, were killed in the crash, according to the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office . No one else was aboard the twin-engine Beechcraft Baron.

The sheriff's office wrote in a news release that shortly after 11 a.m. Tuesday, it received reports of the plane "losing altitude, circling, and then crashing into an open field."

RELATED: 2 killed in fiery plane crash north of Houston

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is leading an investigation into the crash, according to the sheriff's office, which deferred to the National Transportation Safet

See Full Page