Texarkana native among 5 killed in LR plane crash

Glennmarkus Walker, others en route to Ohio in response to metal plant explosion

A Texarkana native was one of five people killed Wednesday in a Little Rock plane crash.

Glennmarkus Walker, 32, was identified Thursday as one of the victims. Officials with CTEH, an environmental consulting firm, identified all five victims as employees of the company.

Walker was a rapid responder with CTEH.

Walker’s Facebook page shows he had also been a real estate agent at Keller Williams Realty in Little Rock.

Walker was a 2008 graduate of Arkansas High School and studied applied sciences at Texas A&M University Texarkana and mathematics education at Grambling State University in Louisiana, according to his Facebook page.

Federal investigators headed to Arkansas on Thursday to determine the cause of the plane crash.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board planned to begin work to document the crash site and examine the plane’s wreckage, agency spokesperson Jennifer Gabris said in an email.

Gabris said a preliminary report on their findings should be released in about two weeks.

The twin-engine Beech B2000 airplane crashed about noon Wednesday near an industrial site in Little Rock shortly after taking off from the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport. The plane was heading to Columbus, Ohio.

CTEH said the employees were responding to the scene of an Ohio metals plant where an explosion this week killed one worker and sent more than a dozen to the hospital.

The other employees were Gunter Beaty, 23, a production safety data manager; Kyle Bennett, 36, a staffing manager, logistics; Micah Kendrick, 41, a safety supervisor; and Sean Sweeney, 64, a pilot.

The crash occurred as a line of thunderstorms that the National Weather Service said included wind gusts of 40 mph moved through the Little Rock area. The NTSB said its investigators will be looking into whether weather and other factors played a role in the crash.