Live updates: 3 people killed when small plane crashes into Clearwater mobile home park, FAA says
CLEARWATER — Three people were killed when a small plane crashed into a Clearwater mobile home park Thursday evening, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The crash happened shortly after 7 p.m. when the plane went down in the Bayside Waters mobile home park. Formerly known as Japanese Gardens Mobile Home Park, the park is a 55 and older community located at 19709 U.S. Highway 19 North, south of the Clearwater Mall.
According to preliminary information released by the FAA, the pilot of the Beechcraft Bonanza V35 and two people on the ground were killed. Only the pilot was aboard the plane.
The pilot reported engine failure before the crash, the FAA said.
At 7:08 p.m., a structure fire was reported at Bayside Waters mobile home park, Clearwater Fire Chief Scott Ehlers said during a news conference Thursday.
“Simultaneously, there was a report of an aircraft having an emergency at the airport,” Ehlers said. The tower picked up mayday radio transmissions from the pilot of a small aircraft that went off the radar about 3 miles north of the runway, Ehlers said.
When firefighters arrived at 7:15, they found four “heavily involved” mobile homes. Aircraft response vehicles arrived at the same time, which Ehlers said was a “critical component” in helping put out the flames.
The aircraft was found predominantly in one home, Ehlers said, adding that authorities were working with the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate.
The main home struck by the plane was a double-wide at 2647 Pagoda Drive, Mary Fagan, 63, told the Tampa Bay Times on Thursday.
It used to be her mother’s, Fagan said, and now belongs to a sister who was looking to fly down from Illinois after the crash.
Fagan said some neighbors called her Thursday evening and said: “Your mom’s mobile is on fire.”
She rushed over from her place up the road and stood on the pavement, watching as the temperature dropped and firefighters sprayed the smoldering rubble.
Fagan said she believes some people were staying in the home, but as of 10 p.m., she hadn’t been allowed closer than about 150 feet away and wasn’t sure whether anyone was inside at the time the plane went down.
Check here for live updates throughout the day Friday.
6 p.m.: After the crash, questions remain
It was just after 7 p.m. Thursday, and residents in the Bayside Waters 55+ community were finishing dinner, fingering bingo chips and stepping out into the cool night air for a smoke when a plane dropped from the sky.
The pilot had taken off from Vero Beach about an hour earlier, according to FlightAware.com. Over Pinellas County, something went wrong. He looped and reversed.
The plane, a small Beechcraft Bonanza V35, crashed in a thunderous explosion that shook homes in Bayside Waters and shot flames skyward.
The pilot and two people in the home hit by the plane died, authorities said. Investigators have not publicly identified them. Not long before the crash, police said, there were as many as nine people in the house. But most left, narrowly — and unknowingly — averting disaster.
Friday brought few answers to the puzzle that began to reveal itself late Thursday under the glare of strobing emergency lights.
— Zachary T. Sampson, Jack Prator and Dan Sullivan, Times staff writers
5:25 p.m. Clearwater Fire’s route to plane crash was timely but complicated
The first Clearwater Fire and Rescue engine arrived at Thursday’s fiery plane crash in Bayside Waters mobile home park 7 minutes after the first call for service — half a second under Pinellas County’s baseline standard for response time.
But doing so required the driver of Engine 49 to drive south — against northbound traffic — on the frontage road between Gulf to Bay Boulevard and the park at 19709 U.S. Highway 19 North, according to Fire Chief Scott Ehlers.
Engine 49′s harrowing path to the crash site was the latest reminder of how the configuration of U.S. 19′s exit ramps and the spacing of Clearwater’s fire stations has long been a point of concern as residential population in the eastern portion of the city near the highway grows.
— Tracey McManus, Times staff writer
4:45 p.m. People were gathered in mobile home moments before crash: AP
About 10 people had enjoyed a day of golf and were having drinks inside a woman’s mobile home moments before a small plane crashed and obliterated the property, an eyewitness told The Associated Press on Friday.
The last of the guests had lingered to finish her drink, and she was in the home along with her host when it went up in flames, their neighbor Rick Renner told the AP.
Renner said he jumped in his golf cart and reached the crash site shortly before emergency crews arrived. He spoke with a neighbor across the street who had just left the party, and he checked to make sure other neighbors weren’t in danger.
“It was just one big ball of flames,” Renner said. “You couldn’t even tell there was a mobile home there.”
Renner said the gathering’s host was a “snowbird” who spent her winters in the mobile home park for years. “Everybody is shocked,” he said.
— Associated Press
3:55 p.m. “As many as 9 people” in mobile home just before it took direct hit, officials say
As many as nine people were in a Bayside Waters mobile home shortly before it took a direct hit from a small plane on Thursday, but all but two had left the home shortly before the crash, Clearwater officials said in a news release Friday.
The release confirmed that three people had been found dead — the pilot and sole occupant of the Beechcraft V35 and two people inside the home — and that the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner would work to identify them and their cause of death.
The police department will release the names of the three people killed when they’re identified, the release said.
“Our thoughts are with the three victims and their families; this tragedy could have been even worse,” police Chief Eric Gandy said in a statement.
The release said the National Transportation Safety Board was expected to remove the wreckage from the crash site on Saturday.
— Tony Marrero, Times staff writer
2:20 p.m. At least 14 crashes involving similar aircraft since 2010
Since 2010, at least 14 crashes involving Beechcraft V35 aircraft have cited partial or total engine failure as a “defining event” behind a crash, according to a National Transportation Safety Board database. About a half-dozen of those involved Beechcraft V35B planes, similar to the one involved in Thursday’s crash.
Contributing factors include improper repairs and installations, adverse weather, fuel loss and pilot error.
The Beechcraft Bonanza V35 series is “the epitome of a cross-country flyer,” Flying Magazine wrote in December, and one that’s been in production since the late 1940s. V35s built decades ago are still popular; the American Bonanza Society says it has 10,000 members.
Concerns over the age of some parts in the decades-old planes led Australia to temporarily ground Beechcrafts in 2012. The FAA didn’t follow suit, though it did issue updated guidelines for maintenance and inspection.
— Jay Cridlin, Times staff writer
12:45 p.m. Investigators seek info from Vero Beach airport
A spokesperson for Vero Beach Regional Airport, where the plane took off, said Friday that Clearwater police contacted him to get more information about the plane, the pilot and the potential cause of the crash. Todd Scher said he pointed police to Corporate Air Inc., a contractor at the airport responsible for the maintenance of some aircraft.
A spokesperson who did not identify himself said that the owner of the company, Rodger Pridgeon, does not currently want to comment.
— Justin Garcia, Times staff writer
11:50 a.m. Pilot said he was “losing engine”
An archived recording on LiveATC.net, a website that compiles air traffic control radio communications, captured a portion of the pilot’s distress call and the words of other pilots in the air nearby.
”Coming to Albert Whitted,” the pilot said in the recording, an apparent reference to Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg. “I can’t see the other airport.”
Seconds passed, then the pilot spoke again.
”I’m losing engine,” he said.
There came an indecipherable noise, then several seconds of silence before another pilot spoke.
”Oh, f—k,” the other pilot said. “Tampa, (the plane) just hit the ground really hard. It’s in flames.”
The pilot in the air said he would circle the area.
”Tampa, it looks like there’s a structure fire down there,” he said. “It looks like he went into a building.”
A few minutes after the crash, another pilot said the plane had crashed directly below him.
”It looks like it’s into a house,” he said. “I can’t really tell. And there’s still active flames down there and a lot of smoke coming from it. ... He is definitely into a house. The whole house has just been demolished. ... I just saw him going down at an extremely high rate of speed. Did not see any flames. Just saw (the plane) going down.”
— Dan Sullivan, Times staff writer
11:10 a.m. Neighbors tell of a narrow miss
By midmorning, foot traffic outside the taped-off scene had slowed. Neighbors walked their dogs or chatted excitedly in front yards.
When Carmen Rossi and Marie Jacovini heard the crash Thursday night, the couple thought it may have been a truck. When they looked outside, they knew something bigger had hit the units.
”The ball of fire was higher than the pine trees,” Rossi, 68, said.
”Sparks were flying,” Jacovini, 67, added.
They said they knew of one woman who had a narrow miss with the crash.
That night, the couple had been at a bingo game at the community center. They had just spoken with one of the residents who lived at the home the plane hit directly, the couple said.
”There was an older woman that we play cards with,” Jacovini said. “She had just left that house.”
— Jack Prator, Times staff writer
11 a.m. Plane took off from Vero Beach, registered to Indiana company
Federal Aviation Administration records show the plane, a Beechcraft V35 single-engine fixed-wing aircraft, was manufactured in 1979. It took off from Vero Beach about 6:08 p.m.
A record of the plane’s trip on FlightAware.com, a website that tracks air traffic around the world, shows the plane flew west at about 6,000 feet across Osceola, Polk and Hillsborough counties. The plane was scheduled to land at 6:49 p.m. at the Clearwater Airpark, according to FlightAware. But a flight tracking log showed the plane turning north, then looping back south, passing the airport. It rapidly descended as it moved west toward U.S. 19.
Aviation records indicate that the plane was owned by Control Data Inc., a company based in Indianapolis. The company’s owner is a licensed commercial pilot who lives in Melbourne Beach. Efforts to reach the company owner Friday were not immediately successful. A call to a number listed for his company went straight to voicemail. A woman who answered the phone Friday at a number listed for someone who shares his address in Melbourne Beach declined to comment to a reporter.
— Dan Sullivan, Times staff writer
10:40 a.m. Resident recalls neighbor fighting fire with garden hose
Rachelle Roach, 63, was standing in her carport outside her home on Teakwood Drive when the plane went down.
”I heard a hissing sound and then I look up in the sky and it was dark and then I see this plane with the lights on and everything,” she said. “Just seconds later I look over and it hit. It went straight down.”
Roach said she started to pray that the plane would land in a nearby vacant lot. But it didn’t.
”As soon as it hit, it just exploded,” she said. “And then the flames went up.”
The crash sparked a fire at the home of Roach’s neighbor, James Jenkins, who lives a couple of lots over from the home the plane hit directly. She said she saw Jenkins trying to put out the blaze with his garden hose Thursday night. He didn’t have a jacket on and was shivering, Roach said. She said neighbors were calling out to Jenkins from across the street, telling him to get away from his burning home and to safety when firefighters showed up to help.
Friday morning, she walked over to try to check on Jenkins but was turned away by police, so she called him.
”How are you doing?” she asked into her cellphone. “If you need anything, let us know.”
— Jack Prator, Times staff writer
10:30 a.m. NTSB arrives at crash site, seeks witness accounts and video
An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board was at crash site Friday morning, documenting the scene and examining the aircraft, according to an agency spokesperson.
The agency is the lead investigating body on civil airplane crashes, and it typically looks at three primary factors: the pilot, the plane and the environment. Investigators will collect records, conduct a 72-hour background check of the pilot and their flight history, weather forecasts and conditions, maintenance records and other documents that could help shed light on what happened.
After an on-scene investigation, the agency will transport the wreckage to another facility for closer inspection. A preliminary report on the crash will be released within 30 days. The final report may take one or two years.
The agency is asking witnesses to the crash, or anyone who has surveillance video that could be relevant, to reach out at witness@ntsb.gov.
— Jay Cridlin, Times staff writer
10:25 a.m. Popping sounds, then an explosion
Maris Avery was playing cards with her son Thursday evening when they heard a series of popping sounds overhead before the explosive crash across the street. The impact shook their trailer, Avery said, and by the time they ran outside, the neighbor’s trailer was already engulfed in flames.
Even from 100 feet away, the heat was unbearable, she said.
Fire rescue arrived within 10 minutes, Avery said, and appeared to have the flames under control within half an hour. Details were still foggy in Avery’s mind Friday morning.
”I was focusing on the fire and how horrendous it was,” she said. “(The response) seemed like it took forever, when you’re watching someone’s house burn, but it wasn’t very long.”
— Ian Hodgson, Times staff writer
9:55 a.m. “A huge fireball”
David McAnally, 65, had just finished eating dinner and turned on the evening news when he heard a loud, sputtering engine coming from above.
He turned to his wife and told her something was wrong with the sound of the plane they were hearing overhead.
Moments later, they heard the crash.
”It was a big, huge fireball,” said McAnally said, who has lived in the park for about eight years.
Friday morning, he said residents are still in shock.
“You hear people talk about, ‘Well, unless a plane falls out of the sky and on my head,’” he said. “Well, that just happened.”
About 9 a.m. Friday, Clearwater police taped the scene off outside McAnally’s home on Nagano Drive. He stood outside in sweatpants, watching neighbors who came to gawk at the scene before being turned away by officers.
One driver ran over the large water hose that ran from a fire hydrant to a firetruck down the street.
”Did I hit something?” he asked McAnally.
A Clearwater officer flashed his lights and came over to reprimand the man.
Mike Davis, 66, said he had done his best to steer clear of where the plane landed since the night before.
”I have no desire to see it,” he said. “There’s enough pictures on the news.”
Davis said he was surprised by how quickly first responders arrived at the scene and that the damage was contained to a few houses.
”Thank God,” he said. “It could have been a lot worse.”
— Jack Prator, Times staff writer
8:55 a.m. Drone images show devastation
Drone video and still images captured by Tampa Bay Times journalist Dirk Shadd on Friday morning showed the devastation left in the wake of the crash on Pagoda Drive.
For more photos and video, click here.
8:30 a.m. FAA releases statement
The FAA released the following statement on the crash:
A single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35 crashed into a residential area in Clearwater, Florida around 7 p.m. local time on Thursday, Feb. 1, after the pilot reported an engine failure. Only the pilot was on board.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate. The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide any updates.
8:15 a.m. Video shows immediate aftermath of crash
Tampa Bay Times news partner Spectrum Bay News 9 obtained video from Rick Renner that showed the immediate aftermath of the crash from a vantage point just across the street.
