Pilot before Fla. crash: ‘We’ve lost both engines’
NAPLES, Fla. — Moments before a private jet slammed into a Florida highway, the pilot calmly told an airport controller that the aircraft “was not going to make the runway” because it had lost both engines.
The jet, with five people aboard, was bound for the airport in Naples when it tried to make an emergency landing Friday on Interstate 75. But witnesses say it collided with a vehicle — the wing of the plane dragging a car before slamming into a wall. An explosion followed, with flames and black smoke rising from the scene.
Two people were killed, according to the Collier County Sheriff ’s Office, but it wasn’t known whether the victims were passengers on the plane or people on the ground.
Federal authorities have launched an investigation into the crash near Naples, just north of where the interstate heads east toward Fort Lauderdale along what is known as Alligator Alley.
The plane had taken off from an airport at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, at about 1 p.m. It was scheduled to land in Naples around the time of the crash, Naples Airport Authority spokesperson Robin King said, when the pilot contacted the tower requesting an emergency landing.
“Got that. Emergency. Clear to land. Runway.
Two. Three,” the air traffic controller responded, in audio obtained by The Associated Press.
“We’re clear to land, but we’re not gonna make the runway. We’ve lost both engines,” the pilot replied.
The tower lost contact, and then airport workers saw smoke a few miles away, King said.
King said they sent fire trucks to the scene, and three of the five people on board were taken from the wreckage alive.