‘We’ve lost both engines,’ pilot said before private jet crashed onto Florida interstate, killing 2
A pilot and co-pilot were identified as the two killed in a fiery plane crash on a Florida highway, law enforcement officials said Saturday afternoon.
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office identified Edward Daniel Murphy, a 50-year-old pilot, and co-pilot Ian Frederick Hofmann, 65, as the deceased. The three survivors were crew member Sydney Ann Bosmans, 23, and passengers Aaron Baker, 35, and Audra Green, 23, both from Columbus, Ohio. The trio were taken to a local hospital with injuries. Their circumstances are unknown.
Moments before the private jet crashed into a Florida highway, the pilot had calmly told an airport controller that the plane “wouldn’t make the runway” because it had lost both engines.
The plane, with five people on board, was headed to Naples Airport when it tried to make an emergency landing on Interstate 75 Friday afternoon. But witnesses say it collided with a vehicle: the plane’s wing dragged a car before hitting 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.
Federal authorities have launched an investigation into the crash near Naples, just north of the highway 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, around 1 p.m. It was scheduled to land in Naples around the time of the crash, said Robin King, spokesman for the Naples Airport Authority, when the pilot contacted the tower and requested an emergency. to land.
“Got it. Emergency. Ready to land. Runway. Two. Three,” the air traffic controller responded to the pilot, in audio obtained by The Associated Press.
‘We can land, but we won’t make it to the runway. We lost both engines,” the pilot replied calmly.
The tower lost contact and then airport workers saw smoke from the highway just a few miles away, King said.
King said they sent fire trucks to the scene with special foam and three of the five people on board were pulled from the wreckage alive.
Brianna Walker saw the plane’s wing drag the car in front of hers and slam it into the wall.
“It’s seconds that separated us from the car in front of us,” she said. “The wing crushed this one car.”
Walker and her friend saw the plane just before it hit the highway, allowing her friend to stop before the crash.
“The plane flew inches above our heads,” she said. “He made a sharp right turn and slid across the highway.”
According to the FlightAware aircraft tracker, the plane was operated by Hop-a-Jet Worldwide Charter, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The plane was scheduled to fly back to Fort Lauderdale on Friday afternoon.
Hop-a-Jet said Friday evening that it had received “confirmed reports of an accident involving one of our leased aircraft near Naples” and would send a team to the crash site, the Naples Daily News reported.
“Our immediate concern is for the well-being of our passengers, crew members and their families,” the statement said. It contained no details about the crash.
A spokesperson for Ohio State University said the plane is not affiliated with the university and they had no further information about it.
Federal authorities said a preliminary report on the cause of the crash could be expected within 30 days.
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Cline reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.