A small plane crashed into a mobile home park in Clearwater, Florida, killing the pilot and two people on the ground, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.
The pilot of the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35 reported an engine failure shortly before the aircraft went down into the Bayside Waters mobile home park around 7 p.m. Thursday, authorities said.
It crash-landed on a double-wide mobile home, sending the structure up in flames. Firefighters couldn't immediately tell how many people were the home, but the FAA confirmed Friday that two people inside died.
Clearwater Fire Chief Scott Ehlers said at least three neighboring homes suffered fire damage, although the flames were quickly doused.
One of those neighbors, 72-year-old Joe Miller, was drifting off to sleep when he heard an “unbelievable roar” and was thrown to the floor covered in insulation and broken glass. Miller said he narrowly survived the deadly crash that ripped apart his mobile home and destroyed the trailer next door.
“The roof’s blown off and I don’t know what’s left inside. I just know I’m lucky to be here,” he said.
Rick Renner is a resident at Bayside Waters. He told NBC's TODAY show that he heard what sounded like a loud motorcycle go by before the crash.
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"It was a loud bang, the windows shook, the house actually shook," Renner said.
After firefighters doused the flames, Renner walked by the wreckage but said he couldn't tell there was a plane in there. "Everything was just gone," he added.
“A mobile home doesn’t withstand much in the first place, so the aircraft pretty much demolished it,” Ehlers said. “The fire consumed the rest.”
Ehlers said the pilot reported an emergency to St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport shortly before the plane went off radar about 3 miles (5 kilometers) north of a runway.
The airport is about 7 miles (11 kilometers) southeast of Clearwater.
Federal investigators are examining the scene.
