A single-engine plane crashed into a waterfront mobile home park in Clearwater, Florida, on Thursday evening, Feb. 1, after the pilot reported an engine failure.
The crash killed several people, damaged four homes and set the area on fire, officials said.
The plane slammed directly into one home, causing “several fatalities, both from the aircraft and within the mobile home,” Scott Ehlers, the fire chief of Clearwater, said at a news conference.
The crash left part of the mobile home park, Bayside Waters, engulfed in flames.
Three other homes were damaged, though no one inside those was injured, Chief Ehlers said.
The aircraft, which crashed at around 7 p.m., was a Beechcraft Bonanza V35, and the number of people on board was unknown as of early Friday, Feb. 2, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
Videos posted online showed a blaze and a wall of thick smoke billowing over homes.
The Fire Department received the initial call at 7:08 p.m., and crews “quickly extinguished” the blaze after arriving at the park at about 7:15 p.m., Chief Ehlers said.
“The aircraft went off radar about three miles north of the runway, which is in this location here,” the chief said at the crash site.
The National Transportation Safety Board will be in charge of the investigation, the F.A.A. said.
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