© The Associated Press / Bob Self/The Florida Times-UnionA pilot and two passengers died Friday afternoon when their Beechcraft crashed into a home in Palm Coast, Fla., while trying to make an emergency landing at the Flagler County Airport. The homeowner escaped unharmed.
The single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza BE35, built in 1957, was headed to Downtown Island Airport in Knoxville, Tenn., when the pilot reported a mechanical problem about 2:10 p.m. ET, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The pilot was attempting to land at the Flagler County Airport but crashed minutes later into the home, in a wooded subdivision of Palm Coast, less than a mile from the runway.
The plane's silver tail was visible through the burned wreckage of the ranch-style house.
Fire engines had been dispatched to the airport for what was expected to be an emergency landing, Flagler County Fire Chief Don Petito told The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
The Florida Highway Patrol told FlaglerLive, which broke the news, that the pilot had reported that the plane's engine was "shaking violently" and that his last transmission mentioned smoke. FlaglerLive has a photo of the crash and what it says is the plane under a previous owner.
The identities of the pilot and two passenger have not been released.
The Highway Patrol said the plane took off from Fort Pierce. Initial reports indicated four or five people were aboard, but the FAA said the four-seater, which was registered in the Virgin Islands, was carrying only three.
The homeowner, Susan Crockett, was alone in a back bedroom and climbed out a window when the plane nose-dived through the roof and the house erupted in flames. She was seen being comforted by neighbors, telling them, "I'm OK," FlaglerLive reported.
"She just walked out of the living room, saw the flames and jumped out the window and ran next door to a neighbor's house," Palm Coast Fire Chief Mike Beadle told the News-Journal. He described Crockett as "a nervous wreck."
She was taken to a local hospital and was reported in stable condition.
The crash was "all kind of a blur" to Crockett, her daughter told The Florida Times-Union.
"She just remembered trying to get out. She said the house was on fire and she just got out," said Jessica Crockett, who spoke with her mother by phone afterward. "She did know it was a plane because she could hear it. We hear planes all the time."
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected Friday evening.
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