Two people have died after a small plane crashed into an SUV while trying to make an emergency landing on Thursday in Florida, authorities said.
The small plane crashed Thursday morning and landed on the side of State Road 200, in Ocala, Fla., which is about an hour and a half from Orlando.
“Two confirmed fatalities are passengers of the small single engine aircraft,” The Ocala Police Department tweeted on Thursday. “The area of SR 200 [State Road 200] in which the non traffic accident took place will be shut down for the next several hours as we wait for NTSB/FAA to arrive.”
NEW JERSEY SMALL PLANE CRASH LEAVES PILOT DEAD
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told Fox News that a Beechcraft Baron aircraft, with two people on board, crashed into a car on a highway southeast of Ocala International Airport in Florida around 11:30 a.m.
The FAA is investigating and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will determine the probable cause of the accident, an FAA spokesman said.
Peter Knudson, an NTSB spokesman, told Fox News the Beechcraft Baron, a light, twin-engine piston aircraft, took off from Ocala International Airport around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday and crashed shortly thereafter.
Knudson said an NTSB investigator is on the way and an updated media briefing is expected on Friday.
The identifications of those killed have not yet been released.
A witness reportedly told police that the plane nosedived, hit the ground and burst into flames on the side of the road, according to the Ocala Star-Banner, which added that a piece of the plane’s propeller hit her car. The newspaper reported that authorities said that the plane experienced mechanical issues and had to make an emergency landing.
When the plane struck the SUV, an elderly driver was reportedly injured.
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The driver was taken to the hospital and is in stable condition, according to a tweet from a Fox 35 reporter.