spurschick
07-10-2007, 01:26 PM
(CNN) -- Five people, including the husband of a top NASCAR executive, were killed Tuesday when a small plane crashed into two homes in Sanford, Florida, near Orlando.
At least one of those killed was a small child, Sanford Fire Chief Gerard Ransom told reporters. It's possible another one of the victims was also a child, Seminole County Fire Chief Leeanna Raw said.
NASCAR confirmed on its Web site that one of the dead was Dr. Bruce Kennedy, who was piloting the plane.
According to the Web site, Kennedy was married to International Speedway Corp. President Lesa France Kennedy, the daughter of the longtime head of NASCAR Bill France Jr., who died in June.
Four people also were injured, three of whom were critically burned, authorities said.
Officials said there were fatalities in both houses and among the people on board the plane. Earlier, officials had said those killed included the pilot and a passenger on the aircraft.
The twin-engine Cessna 310 was registered to Competitor Liaison Bureau.
The plane had taken off from Daytona Beach and was headed to Lakeland, Florida, when it declared an emergency with smoke in the cockpit and attempted to land at Orlando-Sanford International Airport, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen.
Instead, the plane crashed about five miles from the airport in a neighborhood called The Preserve at Lake Monroe.
"First I heard a plane flying overhead. It sounded like a semi-truck coming down the road trying to slow down. As soon as it hit, it exploded into flames," a witness told CNN affiliate WESH 2 News. Watch firefighters work in smoking rubble of homes »
The two homes that were hit were reduced to smoking rubble. Portions of their outside walls, blackened from the explosion and fire, remained standing.
"A boy jumped out of the second story. He was on fire and extinguished himself. The wife ran out of the front door. She was on fire. Someone was screaming about a baby still inside the house," a witness told WESH.
Terry Boyd, who lives two blocks from the crash site, told CNN he heard the plane overhead and then the explosion, which slightly shook his own house.
"There was a quick run of the plane and then you heard the big boom," said Boyd, who also provided CNN with pictures of the scene. "There was a lot of fuel in it because you kept hearing the booms over time."
Boyd, who only recently moved to the area, said neighbors were stunned, sitting on the ground and "shaking their heads in disbelief."
"People were gathering together, hugging each other. People were crying," he said.
The Orlando-Sanford International Airport control tower got a call at 8:35 a.m. about an Alert 1, which means an aircraft is in trouble, said airport spokeswoman Diane Cruz.
One minute later, the warning was raised to Alert 3, meaning a crash is imminent or occurring, Cruz said.
Raw said Seminole County firefighters were trying to shore up the structures so they would be safe for investigators to go in and take a look.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/10/florida.crash/index.html
At least one of those killed was a small child, Sanford Fire Chief Gerard Ransom told reporters. It's possible another one of the victims was also a child, Seminole County Fire Chief Leeanna Raw said.
NASCAR confirmed on its Web site that one of the dead was Dr. Bruce Kennedy, who was piloting the plane.
According to the Web site, Kennedy was married to International Speedway Corp. President Lesa France Kennedy, the daughter of the longtime head of NASCAR Bill France Jr., who died in June.
Four people also were injured, three of whom were critically burned, authorities said.
Officials said there were fatalities in both houses and among the people on board the plane. Earlier, officials had said those killed included the pilot and a passenger on the aircraft.
The twin-engine Cessna 310 was registered to Competitor Liaison Bureau.
The plane had taken off from Daytona Beach and was headed to Lakeland, Florida, when it declared an emergency with smoke in the cockpit and attempted to land at Orlando-Sanford International Airport, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen.
Instead, the plane crashed about five miles from the airport in a neighborhood called The Preserve at Lake Monroe.
"First I heard a plane flying overhead. It sounded like a semi-truck coming down the road trying to slow down. As soon as it hit, it exploded into flames," a witness told CNN affiliate WESH 2 News. Watch firefighters work in smoking rubble of homes »
The two homes that were hit were reduced to smoking rubble. Portions of their outside walls, blackened from the explosion and fire, remained standing.
"A boy jumped out of the second story. He was on fire and extinguished himself. The wife ran out of the front door. She was on fire. Someone was screaming about a baby still inside the house," a witness told WESH.
Terry Boyd, who lives two blocks from the crash site, told CNN he heard the plane overhead and then the explosion, which slightly shook his own house.
"There was a quick run of the plane and then you heard the big boom," said Boyd, who also provided CNN with pictures of the scene. "There was a lot of fuel in it because you kept hearing the booms over time."
Boyd, who only recently moved to the area, said neighbors were stunned, sitting on the ground and "shaking their heads in disbelief."
"People were gathering together, hugging each other. People were crying," he said.
The Orlando-Sanford International Airport control tower got a call at 8:35 a.m. about an Alert 1, which means an aircraft is in trouble, said airport spokeswoman Diane Cruz.
One minute later, the warning was raised to Alert 3, meaning a crash is imminent or occurring, Cruz said.
Raw said Seminole County firefighters were trying to shore up the structures so they would be safe for investigators to go in and take a look.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/10/florida.crash/index.html