CLEARWATER, Fla. — A lengthy investigation is just in its beginning stages into what led to a deadly plane crash into a mobile home park in Clearwater.
"Yes sir, I can go over the section. They went down hard. They're in flames,” someone was heard saying during a transmission.
Transmission audio recordings from Live ATC paint a picture of the aftermath of that plane crash.
"Tampa looks like there's a structure fire down there; looks like he went into a building,” someone stated in the recordings.
The FAA confirms a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35 crashed around 7:00 p.m. Thursday after the pilot reported an engine failure. The FAA said only the pilot was on board.
According to FlightAware, it showed a route from Vero Beach Regional Airport with a takeoff scheduled around 6:00 p.m. heading to Clearwater Airpark.
Records show the plane is registered to Control Data INC with an address listed in Indianapolis. ABC Action News has not been able to reach the owner.
"Very common. People use it for general aviation, for travel, getting point A to B,” said JP Dice. “Very nice airplane."
ABC Action News caught up with Dice, a corporate pilot and flight instructor, in Lakeland Friday afternoon.
"You have one engine. If that fails, you have transitioned into a glider,” said Dice. “Now, the airplane's just not going to drop out of the sky. It will continue to fly, but it is going to come down eventually as it loses altitude."
Dice pointed out that one of the issues with this particular situation was the fact that we just had sunset.
"You're looking at a nighttime event where you have an engine failure,” said Dice. “Where that's a problem is during the daytime, it's pretty easy to pick out fields and alternative places to land if you can't make it to an airport. At nighttime, you can’t see all of those options out there."
An NTSB investigator arrived at the accident site Friday morning will document the scene and examine the aircraft. The NTSB said the aircraft will then be recovered to a secure facility for further evaluation.
"Their job is to answer three questions: what happened, why did it happen, and most importantly, what can be done to prevent it from happening again?" said Anthony Brickhouse, a Professor of Aerospace Safety at the Daytona Beach campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Brickhouse said the investigation is a thorough and intensive process looking at physical and digital evidence, the weather, and talking to air traffic controllers and witnesses.
"From some reports that I’ve heard, it's a possibility that the pilot radioed in and said he had an engine problem, so as an investigator, I'm going to get with the manufacturer of that engine, and we're literally going to do an autopsy on that engine to try to figure out exactly what was working and what wasn't working, and you're going to do that with that entire aircraft,” said Brickhouse.
According to the NTSB, a preliminary report will be available within 30 days, while a final report is expected in 12 to 24 months.
