Three members of a family were killed in small plane crash in Prentiss County, Mississippi.

According to WTVA reports, a small single-engine Piper Cherokee Lance plane, crashed south of County Road 4111 around 2 p.m. Sunday in New Site, about 35 miles northeast of Tupelo.

The family members including college student Caroline Bartley, her father James Bartley Jr., and his wife Terry Bartle died on the spot when the plane carrying them broke apart mid-air and crashed on the land.

The family was said be to flying from their vacation home in the North Carolina mountains to the University of Mississippi, where Caroline Bartley was believed to be a student, reported Associated Press quoting Carter Hyneman, who shared a podiatry practice with Bartley in Columbus, Georgia, as saying.

Pieces of the plane were spread across half a mile in a wooded area. It is said to have taken more than two hours for the rescue medical helicopter involved in the rescue operation to sight wreckage and lead the rescue workers to find the main body of the aircraft that holds the crew and the passengers.

The plane is said to have crashed down from 8,000 feet above ground level. The fuselage was partially buried and crumpled. As many as 125 emergency workers from five counties had helped in the search.

There was reportedly a strong thunderstorm in that area during the time of the accident. But the cause of the incident is not yet ascertained.

This is second such incident in Mississippi in a month after an executive of an Oklahoma Gypsum Company was killed in June when his company's plane carrying him reportedly crashed during severe storms at Noxubee County in eastern Mississippi.