The crash of a light sport plane has claimed two lives near Erie.

Forty-one-year-old instructor Matthew Crine of Wheat Ridge and 58-year-old Emmett Murphy of Riverton, Wyoming, died in the accident Saturday afternoon.

Eyewitness Karilyn Clark says that the plane banked hard to avoid power lines shortly after taking off before spiraling toward the ground.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus says the FAA conducted a preliminary investigation and would turn over the scene to National Transportation Safety Board investigators.

The Evektor aircraft was manufactured in the Czech Republic.