Three people were killed Friday when a small plane crashed near the airport in Boca Raton, Florida, and officials said a ton of smoke swirled into the air as they reported hearing the sound of lightning.
Michael LaSalle, assistant chief and public relations officer at Boca Raton Fire Rescue, said all three of the dead were on Cessna planes.
Prime Minister LaSalle was treated for life-threatening injuries after a fourth person on the ground ran through a “fireball” from a crash and crashed into a tree, causing life-threatening injuries. The plane's pilot reported a “mechanical problem” just before the crash, adding that National Traffic Safety Commission investigators were heading to the scene for an investigation.
Footage from television news showed wreckage on the tracks of a series of trains under the elevated highway. Boca Raton Police said a major section of Interstate 95 was closed near the crash site. Flightradar24, a flight tracking site, captured a dizzy flight pattern as the plane looped and zigzagded around the Boca Raton area. At about 10:15am local time, we took off from Boca Raton Airport and headed for Tallahassee, Florida.
According to Federal Aviation Administration registry data, the plane is a Cessna 310R built in 1977. The model seats 4-6 people. The victim's identity was not immediately disclosed.
The airport's business manager said the airport was closed due to a “aircraft incident” shortly after the crash. Airports that operate primarily private and charter flights have reopened by noon.
Trirail, a commuter rail system, said services were affected between Deerfield Beach and Boca Raton stations due to the crash.
Lorenzo Echeveria, a pilot and flight instructor who lives about a mile from the airport, had just returned from a morning run that sounded like an “unusually big” propeller plane
At first he thought it might be a military plane or a larger propeller plane, but when he checked the flight tracker app he saw that the plane appeared to be flying in a random pattern of about 200 feet “all here and there.” The plane is restricted to at least 1,000 feet of flight in crowded areas, he said.
“Even people with special flight permits can't do that,” he said. “At the time I knew something was wrong.”
Mr. Echeveria had not heard the crash drop because of the windows that would withstand his hurricane, he said, but the next thing he knows is that there was a big black smoke.
