Beechcraft Model A36 Bonanza, similar to the plane that crashed into a mobile home in Florida Thursday night killing ‘several.’ Photo courtesy Bidgee/Wikimedia
Several people are dead after a small plane crashed into a mobile home in Clearwater, Fla., Thursday night, the local fire department said.
Police and fire officials have not yet said how many fatalities there were, but Clearwater Fire Chief Scott Ehlers confirmed at a press briefing that the fatalities were from those in the plane and the home the plane hit. Advertisement
There were “several fatalities, both from the aircraft and within the mobile home,” Ehlers added.
Clearwater Fire & Rescue said the department received a call about the crash at 7:08 p.m. EST, and they were on the scene seven minutes later.
In a press briefing Thursday night, officials said the plane, a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35, went off radar about three miles north of the airport runway, which is the location of the mobile home park.
The plane crashed after reporting engine failure, the FAA said.
Clearwater Police are on the scene working with local fire officials and the medical examiner’s office and plan to provide their information to federal investigators, Clearwater Police Chief Eric Gandy said.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board plan to investigate the incident. Advertisement
The fire from the crash spread to at least four additional homes, but firefighters were able to quickly extinguish those flames and evacuate the residents, officials said.
Frances Yont, who lives across the street from the crash site, told 10 Tampa Bay, a CBS affiliate, she could feel the heat from the fire when she ran out of her home in Clearwater, roughly 20 miles west of Tampa.
“Everything was popping like propane tanks,” she said. “We couldn’t do anything. It was horrible.”
