A small plane crashed at a mobile home park in Florida, United States (US), starting a fire and killing the pilot and two people on the ground, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.
The blaze engulfed part of the mobile home park, Bayside Waters, in Clearwater. The Federal Aviation Administration said early the pilot reported an engine failure and the aircraft, a Beechcraft Bonanza V35, went down.
The plane was flying from Vero Beach on Florida’s east coast to Clearwater Airpark, according to data from FlightRadar24.
At least three homes had fire damage, Clearwater Fire Chief Scott Ehlers said. Aside from the home that was directly struck, the people in the other homes were able to get out, he said.
The pilot reported to air traffic controllers that he was losing engine power shortly before the crash. The pilot of another small plane broadcast that he saw what happened, according to audio archived by LiveATC.net.
“They went down hard,” the pilot of the second plane said. “They’re in flames.”
The pilot of the second plane circled around the crash site to get a better look, telling air traffic controllers he had seen the crashed plane “going down at an extremely high rate of speed” and that it appeared to have demolished a house.
Rick Renner, who lives in the neighborhood, said his house shook with the impact of the plane’s crash landing.
“We heard what we thought what was like a motorcycle go by or something. Then a few seconds later it was a loud bang, the windows actually shook, the house shook,” Renner said in an interview to US news channel.
He ran to the crash site and took video of the fiery scene. “Even after the fire was out, you really couldn’t even tell there was a plane in there, everything was just gone” he said.
Renner said the crash is a shock to the community where “everybody is friends,” adding, “It’s just weird that something like this happens in your neighborhood.”
Helicopter video showed a field of debris, including what appeared to be all or part of a home, and firefighters using flashlights at the scene as smoke rose. Firefighters were putting water on one structure with a firehose.
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, the FAA said.
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