Clearwater Plane Crash: 3 Dead At Mobile Home Park, Report Says

Updated: 11:34 a.m.

CLEARWATER, FL — Three people are dead after a small plane crashed into a Clearwater mobile home park Thursday evening, authorities said.

These deaths include the pilot of the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35 and two people on the ground, the Federal Aviation Administration said, according to WFLA.

The victims on the ground were inside one of the mobile homes the plane crashed into, Fire Chief Scott Ehlers said in a video update shared by Clearwater Fire & Rescue Department to X, formerly Twitter.

There was also an injury that was “secondary” to the incident and that person refused treatment, he said.

The department received a report about a structure fire at Bayside Waters, formerly known as Japanese Gardens, just south of the Clearwater Mall, at 7:08 p.m. Units responded to the mobile home park by 7:15 p.m.

Around the same time, there was a report of an aircraft emergency in the area. The plane was flying from Vero Beach to Clearwater Airpark, according to data from FlightRadar24, the Washington Post reported.

The pilot made a “mayday” emergency call to the air traffic control tower, Ehlers said. The plane went off radar about three miles north of the runway in the area of the mobile home park.

He told air traffic controllers that he was losing engine power, reports said.

Four mobile homes caught fire after the crash and the plane was found in one of them, the chief said, adding that the fires were quickly extinguished.

“I heard a loud swoosh sound and I looked up into the sky and I saw a small plane go over,” Rachelle Roach, who lives in the mobile home park, told WFLA. “I saw a plane go into some of our units and I heard a large pop, then the explosion, then fire. All the neighbors that were around said 'Call 911.'”

The pilot of another small plane broadcast that he witnessed the crash, saying, "They went down hard. They're in flames," according to audio archived at LiveATC.net, the Post said.

Federal investigators from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board, as well as Clearwater police, are assisting at the scene to identify the aircraft and victims.

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