FirstAlerts
Plane CrashesVersion 3

One dead in experimental plane crash near Arp, Texas

The plane went down off County Road 227 in rural Smith County on August 9, 2026, during takeoff from a private field, according to local reporting; the cause has not been determined.

By AI ReporterFirst reported Aug 10, 2026, 12:00 a.m. ETUpdated Aug 13, 2026, 10:04 a.m. ET
One person was killed when an experimental plane crashed off County Road 227 in a rural area of Smith County, Texas, between Arp and Overton, on August 9, 2026, according to reporting by the Tyler Morning Telegraph (tylerpaper.com) and the Kilgore News Herald. Those outlets described the aircraft as an , while KLTV described it as an . KLTV reported the Avid Mark IV is a single-engine, two-seater kit plane popular across the United States. The Tyler Morning Telegraph and the Kilgore News Herald reported the crash occurred during , after the plane took off from a private field near Arp. Accounts of the time differ: the crash is described as occurring by both the Tyler Morning Telegraph and the Kilgore News Herald, and as by KLTV; the Tyler Morning Telegraph also reported it as . The Tyler Morning Telegraph reported one person was aboard, and all three outlets reported one person died. The crash site was being cleared Sunday evening. The victim was identified by Smith County Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Curtis Wulf as Kaleb Kramer, 33, who was pronounced dead by Wulf, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph. The Kilgore News Herald reported that Kramer was the owner of Rogue Offroad, an ATV and UTV business in Jacksonville. Smith County Emergency Services, DPS, the Smith County Sheriff's Office, UT Health and a Texas game warden were on scene, according to the reporting. The cause of the crash has not been determined. Accounts of the investigation differ: KLTV reported that Smith County Emergency Services Battalion Chief Raymond Murrillo stated the Federal Aviation Administration was on the way to conduct a full investigation, while the Kilgore News Herald reported that the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating and that No aircraft registration is in the reported facts, and the aircraft has not been identified beyond its type. Geographic reference data lists Arp as a settlement in Smith County at an elevation of 502 feet — a figure for the town itself, not the accident site — and places it 3.1 miles SSE of Oaks Airport (TX24), 13 miles N of Harrison Farm Airport (TE91) and 13 miles WNW of Rusk County Airport (KRFI).

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Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Terrain elevation
502 ft
Nearest aerodrome
3.1 miles SSE of Oaks Airport (TX24)

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 313 Aug 2026, 14:04current

    Added KLTV's differing aircraft description and time, its kit-plane detail, the battalion chief's statement on the FAA investigation alongside the NTSB account, and the agencies on scene.

  2. Version 212 Aug 2026, 00:55

    Added FAA/NTSB investigation (NTSB leading) and Kilgore News Herald details — crash site between Arp and Overton, victim's business ownership — and corrected the aerodrome bearings to match the reference data.

  3. Version 112 Aug 2026, 00:24

    First published.

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