A small private plane that the owner lent to his friend crashed in Virginia on Wednesday morning, killing all three people on board the aircraft.

The jet came from Key West, Florida, and was bound to land at the Suffolk Executive Airport in Virginia before 3 a.m. However, by 4:12 a.m., it was still airborne.

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The plane crashed at the Norfolk Botanical Garden, which is very near Norfolk International Airport, reports USA Today.

According to James Beauchamp of Corapeake, North Carolina, owner of the ill-fated plane, the pilot was his friend Michael Buxton of Portsmouth, Virginia.

Buxton owns a sailboat in Florida, which is the reason he borrowed the 1975 Mooney M20F that lost contact with the Norfolk International Airport's control tower at 4:30 a.m. just one or two miles from the airport, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Nate Littlejohn of the U.S. Coast Guard.

After leaving Florida, the jet stopped to refuel at the Palatka Municipal Airport, 60 miles south of Jacksonville, Florida, and left just before midnight on Tuesday.

Buxton and two of his friends died in the plane crash.

The plane wreck was found at 7:30 a.m. in a wooded area at the north end of the botanical garden called Enchanted Forest, although residents of the area said they did not hear the crash.

The jet was upside down 100 miles away from the lake which borders the botanical garden and the airport.

It was basically intact and located about 200 feet from the site where it landed. Dennis Diaz, air safety inspector of the National Transport Safety Board, said the aircraft broke up before it crashed.

He estimated that it would take nine to 12 months to find the probable cause of the crash.

Buxton, a clinical psychologist with a practice in Virginia Beach, is originally from Buffalo, New York.

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