Two people and a dog have been injured after a small plane crashed during takeoff in northeastern Florida on March 23, officials have confirmed.
In a Facebook
post, St. Johns County Fire Rescue said that multiple agencies, including the San Antonio Fire Department and the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, responded to a 911 call reporting that a plane had crashed into the woods across from the Northeast Regional Airport runway in St. Augustine on Thursday.
The plane initially caught fire, but crews were able to put it out, they said.
“When firefighters arrived, they found a small plane 100 yards into the woodline. The fire was quickly extinguished,” officials said.“Two people were transported and one dog was transported for treatment to an area vet. The cause of the crash is currently under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol.”
Photos shared by fire rescue teams showed what appeared to be debris from the plane scattered out across the woods. A thick cloud of smoke could be seen rising up into the air, but no flames were visible.
The Sheriff’s Office initially
said Thursday that highway US 1 from Big Oak Road to Lewis Speedway was closed due to the plane crash, and asked drivers to take an alternative road, however, the road has since reopened.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the two people onboard the plane were a husband, 61, his wife, 59, and a dog. The plane was
reportedly a Piper Malibu and piloted by the husband when it lost control during takeoff and crashed into a wooded area.
Florida Highway Patrol said the husband and wife were both taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening but “extensive” injuries.
‘Quite Terrifying’
Resident Delaney Romedy, who lives just 100 feet away from where the plane crashed,
told Florida’s CBS News affiliate WJAX-TV that she and her sister “heard a giant crash” before looking out of their window and seeing flames erupting from the site.
The sisters said they called 911 and that authorities appeared to already be on their way to the site of the crash.
“It was quite terrifying in all honesty. I saw a lady being helped out of the woods,” Romedy said.
Separately, Ralph Nuanez, a pilot at the airport,
told Florida’s First Coast News that he had witnessed the crash from his hangar in the airport and that the plane had burst into flames.
“Unfortunately, you know, a really bad tragedy here at the airport. But from my understanding maybe miraculous that we have survivors,” Nuanez said.
The Epoch Times has contacted St. Johns County Fire Rescue for further comment.
Thursday’s crash is the latest in a series of small plane crashes in recent months. In February,
five people were killed when a medical transport flight en route to Salt Lake City crashed in a mountainous area in northern Nevada.
Earlier that month, five employees of an environmental consulting firm were killed when a small airplane they were traveling in
crashed outside an industrial area of Little Rock, Arkansas.
In January,
two people were killed in a plane crash near Westchester County Airport in New York. Officials said that the pilot of the single-engine plane reported low oil pressure to air traffic controllers and tried to make an emergency landing at the airport but was unable to do so.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the recent crashes.
