A Cirrus SR-20 from the registration.
From listening to the liveATC.net recording starting with the 1730Z reel:
The tower controller tried to talk the pilot through several landing attempts on both runway 4 and runway 35. She was having problems with orientation, lineup and getting down on final. He was patient and busily sequencing airline traffic at the same time. At least one of the go arounds was due to a rapidly closing (overtaking by 80 knots) 737 behind.
He gave a one mile final call on one of the attempts and told her 'looking good'. When she started another late steep descent for the runway he advised 'don't force it' and then 'too high, go around!'.
'This one will be easy' he said as he set her up for another try at runway 35. Wind was given as 090/13G18. When that one didn't work out he gave her a left turn at midfield for a downwind to runway 4.
He asked her to make a low tight pattern if she could and stay on the downwind, said he might swing her around to runway 35 or 4 on this pass.
He suddenly exclaimed 'Uh ma'am, ma'am, straighten up, straighten up!
Stall spin and/or engine failure due to fuel exhaustion are possibilities that come to my mind. There doesn't seem to be any visible fire damage in the wreckage photos published so far.
A sad tragic outcome today at Hobby.
Looks like the plane is possibly based at KOUN, University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport:
Flight Track Log ? N4252G ? 09-Jun-2016 ? FlightAware
_____________
An updated news story on the ATC comms:
Confusion in the cockpit: Radio traffic details pilot's struggles | khou.com
Looks like the plane was equipped with a ballistic parachute 'designed to deploy on impact' as one news article put it. It was not used and the fire crews wisely moved people well away out of concern that the pyro might go off from crash damage.
It appears that the pilot and her husband and brother-in-law were onboard and were the three fatalities, no one was injured on the ground. They were from Moore, Oklahoma and going to visit the men's father who was being treated for cancer in Houston.