Clearwater, Florida plane crash: Several dead in Bayside Waters mobile home park

Multiple people were killed when a plane fell from the sky and slammed into a Florida neighborhood shortly after sunset, according to investigators.

It happened shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, in Clearwater and responding firefighters discovered the downed plane inside a burning home. Clearwater is just west of Tampa.

A search for bodies is ongoing, and the unspecified number of dead will include people who were in the plane and in the home, Clearwater Fire Chief Scott Ehlers said at a late night news conference.

The crash site was identified as a “very large” mobile home park known as Bayside Waters.

“At 7:08 p.m. we received a report of a structure fire,” Ehlers said.

“Simultaneously, the aircraft units out of (St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport) received … a response regarding an aircraft that had some trouble. During that conversation … their tower lost them off radar 3 miles north of the runway.”

Firefighters arrived at 7:15 p.m. to find three homes “heavily involved” in flames and a fourth that had sustained some damage, he said.

“The aircraft was found in the one structure, predominantly right in that one structure,” Ehlers said. said. “I can confirmed that we have several fatalities both from the aircraft and within the mobile home. We are still working to make sure there is no additional.”

It’s believed residents were able to escape the burning homes on either side of the crash site uninjured, he said. However, one “secondary” injury was reported by someone in the community, he said. That person refused hospital treatment.

Neighbors in the community told station WTSP they felt their homes vibrating. One compared the falling plane to a “solid white ball, just coming down.”

“Everything was popping like propane tanks,” neighbor Frances Yont told a TV station. “We couldn’t do anything … it was horrible.”

The cause of the crash is under investigation. The pilot repeated the word “mayday” three times before the plane fell off radar, officials said.