Small plane crashes near Rome, 2 people killed

A small plane that was due to transport a liver for transplant exploded and crashed near Rome on Saturday, killing the two people on board.

The AirOne Executive Cessna 650 went down in the fields of Trigoria just after taking off from Rome's Ciampino airport Saturday, the Enac civil aviation authority said in a statement. The pilot and co-pilot were killed.

The plane had been heading to Bologna to pick up a medical team from the Modena University Hospital. The team was traveling to Sardinia to pick up a liver from a donor, and returning to transplant it in a patient in Modena, the hospital said.

The procedure is still scheduled: A different airplane was lined up to bring the liver to the patient, who is "tranquil and serene," the statement said.

Reports said the plane appeared to have exploded mid-air because the debris was scattered and there was no main impact site.

The crash was similar to one in 2004, in which a plane carrying a medical team and a heart for a transplant patient crashed in Sardinia, killing all six people aboard.

"Once again, someone has given his own life while working so that an organ for transplant can give a patient a new life," the National Transplant Center said in expressing its condolences to the families of the pilots.