Two people were killed in a small jet plane after it caught fire while making an emergency landing on Interstate 75 in southwest Florida on Friday (Feb 9).
The plane caught fire after it collided with a vehicle. The fiery accident led to the rise of a massive plume of black smoke in the air which further brought the traffic to a halt.
The crash landing of the plane took place close to the Pine Ridge Road exit in Collier County, which is near Fort Lauderdale.
A spokesperson for the Naples Airport Robin King said that three people successfully exited the plane as the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that five passengers were aboard the flight which was identified as the Bombardier Challenger 600 jet.
The video footage of the aircraft turning into flames was shared on social media by a witness, Brianna Walker.
Plane’s wing dragged a car, slammed into the wall
Walker said that after the crash, one of the wings of the plane dragged a car in front of her and slammed it into the wall.
“It’s seconds that separated us from the car in front of us. The wing pulverised this one car,” the witness said.
The plane was spotted by Walker and her friend plane moments before it crashed on the highway and gave her friend a chance to pull over the car before the crash.
“The plane was over our heads by inches. It took a hard right and skid across the highway,” Walker said.
Walker said that she saw an explosion of flames after which the plane burst with a loud boom and its pieces littered the highway.
“It feels unreal, like a movie. It was seconds between us dying,” she said.
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The plane had departed at about 1 pm (local time) from an airport at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio and was scheduled to land in Naples when the crash happened, said Naples Airport Authority spokesperson Robin King.
The tower was contacted by a pilot, who had requested an emergency landing and said that they had lost both engines. After this, the tower lost contact and then airport workers saw the smoke rise from the interstate, a few miles away.
King said that fire trucks, which had special foam, were sent to the scene of the accident and three people alive were rescued from the plane.
(With inputs from agencies)
