Pilot Survives Crash into Florida Home, Backyard

An ordinary Monday afternoon in Inverness ended as anything but for a family whose home served as a makeshift landing strip for a Beechcraft Bonanza with reported mechanical problems.

According to the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office, the single-engine plane crashed in the area of 743 Carnegie Drive around 3:45 p.m. The plane clipped a power line, struck the home’s back porch and landed in the backyard.

When officials arrived on the scene, they had no trouble spotting the plane, the agency wrote in an email to media. Pilot Joe Rondel Smith was the only person on board. He was taken to Ocala Regional Hospital in Marion County where he was listed in stable condition, the agency announced Tuesday morning.

As for the homeowners, they escaped injury, but their property didn’t fare as well.

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Jennifer Hoar and her daughter were playing a game of pool in a room close to the home’s back porch when the plane crashed, ABC news reported. Both ran to assist the pilot and found him confused from the impact, but conscious.

“He didn’t even know he was flying a plane,” Hoar told the station, adding that blood was running down his head.

The sheriff’s office told ABC Smith radioed in mechanical problems, but couldn’t be rerouted before the engine quit.

The Federal Aviation Authority has taken over the investigation into the crash.

As for the Hoars, the plane, that also damaged their above-ground pool, spilling water into the backyard, will be removed from their home sometime Tuesday, the sheriff’s office wrote in an email to media.

No damage estimates are available.

Photos courtesy of the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office

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