At least two people died Friday when a Bombardier Challenger 600 plane crashed on a highway in Naples, Florida.
The plane, on approach to land in Naples, crashed on Interstate-75 around 3:20 p.m., just a few miles from the local airport.
Videos and photos taken by motorists and widely relayed online by the media and on social networks show that the plane transformed into a veritable ball of fire after the crash, while projecting an immense plume of black smoke into the the sky.
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to several media outlets Friday that at least two people died in the crash, out of a total of five people on board. The other three people managed to get out of the plane after the crash. However, authorities did not say whether they were injured.
Engine failure?
In the moments before the crash, the pilot contacted the Naples control tower.
“OK, Challenger, Hop-a-Jet 823, loss of both engines, emergency. I’m making an emergency landing,” the pilot said, according to a transcript of the conversation published by Naples Daily News.
The air traffic controller responded saying that runway 23 was clear for the plane to land. “We can land, but we’re not going to make it to the runway. We lost both engines,” replied the pilot.
The plane belonging to the Hop-a-Jet company left Fort Lauderdale in the morning to go to Columbus, Ohio. He was on his way back and was scheduled to make a brief stopover in Naples, before returning to Fort Lauderdale.
An investigation was opened by the Federal Aviation Administration, the American agency responsible for aviation safety, to determine the cause of the crash.
The Challenger 600 is a business jet developed by Canadair and now owned by Bombardier.
