Pilot warned he's 'losing engine' in chilling audio moments before plane crash
Terrifying audio footage sheds light on the moments leading up to the horrific crash of a small plane into a mobile home.
The Beechcraft Bonanza V35 crashed into a residential park in Clearwater, Florida, last Thursday evening at around 7pm local time, leaving the pilot and two people on the ground dead, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The chilling audio from the air traffic control tower captures the pilot's distressing communication with the tower just before the catastrophic incident. "I can't see the other airport," the pilot is heard expressing. "I'm losing an engine." The tension escalates as the pilot exclaims: "Oh, f---."
READ MORE: Florida plane crash: Fiery apocalyptic scene as 'distraught' witnesses hear 'boom'
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported the crash around 7pm local time (AP)In the recording, another pilot who bore witness to the crash reacts in shock to the fiery collision that obliterated multiple mobile homes. "They went down hard," the pilot states grimly. "They're in flames."
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The unfolding tragedy becomes evident as the witness observes: "It looks like there was a structure fire. Looks like he went into a building."
Throughout the three-and-a-half-minute recording, the witnessing pilot desperately tries to pinpoint the exact location of the plane's impact. "He is definitely into a house, a whole house is demolished," the pilot reports. "I just saw him going down at an extremely high rate of speed."
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Firefighters couldn’t immediately tell how many people were inside the double-wide mobile home. The identities of the victims were not immediately released and are pending positive identification and notice to family, Clearwater Police Chief Eric Gandy said.
The fact that most of the people in the home had left before the plane went down averted a far greater loss of life, Gandy said. He added: "Our thoughts are with the three victims and their families; this tragedy could have been even worse."
A neighbour, Rick Renner said he jumped in his golf cart and reached the crash site shortly before emergency crews arrived. He spoke with a neighbour across the street who had just left the party, and he checked to make sure other neighbours weren't in danger. He said: "It was just one big ball of flames. You couldn’t even tell there was a mobile home there."
An audio recording from the air traffic control tower captured the pilot's distressClearwater Fire Chief Scott Ehlers told a late-night news conference that the plane's wreckage ended up inside the mobile home, which was reduced to ashes in the blaze. The wreckage was scheduled to be removed Saturday.
The aircraft had taken off earlier in the day from Vero Beach, on Florida's east coast. The pilot reported an emergency to St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport shortly before the plane went off radar, about 3 miles (5 kilometres) north of a runway, Ehlers said. The airport is about 7 miles (11 kilometres) southeast of Clearwater.
An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board arrived in Clearwater on Friday morning to document the scene and examine the aircraft. The investigation will involve three primary areas — the pilot, the aircraft and the operating environment — and consider the flight track data, recordings of any air traffic control communications, the weather forecast and conditions at the time of the crash, witness statements and any surveillance video.
The pilot expressed difficulty seeing and reported losing an engine moments before the crash (AP)Renner had been watching television with friends when they heard the loud boom. He said: "The house actually shook, and the windows rattled. Everybody is shocked" He added that the host of the gathering in the home where the plane crashed, was a "snowbird" who spent her winters in the mobile home park for years.
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Joe Miller, 72, lived next door. He said he was drifting off to sleep when he heard an "unbelievable roar" and was thrown to the floor covered in insulation and broken glass.
Wrapped in a blanket and still shaking hours later, he told the Tampa Bay Times he scrambled through the wreckage of his mobile home, which was ripped apart by the explosion, and was greeted outside by leaping flames from the home next door.
After eight years in the mobile home, in a large 55-plus community off US 19, Miller told the newspaper he has no idea what he will do now. He said: "The roof’s blown off, and I don’t know what’s left inside. I just know I’m lucky to be here."
Mary Fagan, 63, who lives down the street, told the Times that her mother used to own the double-wide. She said another family member who lives in Illinois now owns the home, and neighbours called her Thursday evening, saying: "Your mom’s mobile is on fire." She said she rushed to the scene and joined other neighbours as they watched firefighters douse the flames.
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