A single-engine plane crashed into a beachfront mobile home park in Clearwater, Fla., on Thursday evening after the pilot reported an engine failure, killing multiple individuals, causing damage to four homes, and setting the area on fire, according to officials.
At a news conference, Clearwater Fire Chief Scott Ehlers stated that the plane crashed straight into one residence, resulting in “several fatalities, both from the aircraft and within the mobile home.”
The crash swallowed part of Bayside Waters, a mobile home park. According to Chief Ehlers, three more homes were destroyed, but no one was wounded inside.
The Beechcraft Bonanza V35 that crashed at 7 p.m. was carrying an unknown number of people, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Online videos showed an orange blaze and a wall of heavy smoke rising over residences.
The Fire Department received the initial report at 7:08 p.m., and when crews arrived at the park around 7:15 p.m., they “quickly extinguished” the fire, according to Chief Ehlers.
According to the chief, about the same time his department was contacted, the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport, about three miles away, dispatched its own fire response trucks to an “aircraft having an emergency.”
He said that the pilot had radioed the airport a “mayday” message.
“The aircraft went off radar about three miles north of the runway, which is in this location here,” the chief remarked at the accident site.
The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the probe, according to the F.A.A.