A SMALL PLANE crashed in the Adirondack Mountains, leaving four people dead in the fiery wreckage, state police have confirmed.

The Piper PA-46 plane went down around 6.30pm yesterday (local time) a half-mile northwest of the Adirondack Regional Airport in Lake Clear.

The lakeside hamlet of tourist lodges, campsites and outdoors-oriented establishments is about 50 miles south of the Canadian border.

The identities of the dead have not been released and officials don’t know the cause of the crash.

While the impact and fire destroyed the six-seat civilian plane, it appears the aircraft “came down in a fairly vertical position,” rather than gliding, Franklin County Sheriff Kevin Mulverhill told AP.

“There’s not a lot left of the aircraft,” and the forest is scorched around it, Mulverhill said. He didn’t know whether the plane was taking off or landing when it went down.

The crash site is half a mile or more into woods, authorities said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating and state police said the National Transportation Safety Board was also en route.

The crash happened little over a year after another small plane crashed while approaching the airport in nearby Lake Placid, killing the pilot and his two passengers, who were his graduate student daughter and a friend of hers.

In March 2013, another small plane went down while approaching the Lake Placid Municipal Airport, but all three men aboard escaped with only minor cuts and bruises.

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