A small jet carrying five people crashed on Interstate 75 near Naples, Florida, on Friday afternoon, causing a massive fire and smoke.
The plane had taken off from Ohio and was scheduled to land at the Naples Airport, but it had lost both engines and was unable to reach the runway. Two people died in the crash, and three others were taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
The Federal Aviation Administration identified the aircraft as a Bombardier Challenger 600 jet, which was operated by Hop-a-Jet Worldwide Charter based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
According to Robin King, a spokesperson for the Naples Airport Authority, the plane left an airport at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, near 1 p.m. and was supposed to reach Naples by 3:15 p.m.
The pilot asked the tower for an emergency landing, as both engines had failed. The tower gave permission to land on a runway, but the pilot said “we’re not going to make the runway. We’ve lost both engines,” as per a recording of the call mentioned by the Naples Daily News.
The plane hit a vehicle and a wall as it crashed on the southbound lanes of I-75 close to the Pine Ridge Road exit in Collier County. A huge fire and thick black cloud of smoke were visible at the site. Some drivers stopped and attempted to assist the victims, while others dialed 911.
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office confirmed two deaths in the Naples plane crash, but did not release the names or the identities of the victims. King said that three of the five people on board the plane were taken from the wreckage alive and transported to the hospital with serious injuries. The condition of the driver of the vehicle that was hit by the plane was not known at the time.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team of investigators to the site on Saturday morning to examine the wreckage and determine the cause of the Naples plane crash.
The investigators said they would look into the maintenance records, the flight data recorder, the cockpit voice recorder, and the weather conditions at the time of the crash.
