Student pilot, instructor and two others dead after small planes collide
Four people were killed when two small planes collided in central Florida on Tuesday, officials said.
Residents of the town of Winter Haven reported hearing a loud explosion around 2pm on Tuesday when the two aircraft smashed into each other above Lake Hartridge.
Debris from the crash plummeted into the lake. One of the planes was partially submerged by the time rescuers arrived, the other was 21 feet underwater, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.
Eventually, search and rescue teams were able to locate and identify the bodies of all four people onboard the two aircraft.
One aircraft was identified as a Piper J-3 Cub sea plane, which was being flown out of Jack Brown’s Seaplane Base in Winter Haven.
The occupants were identified as Randall Elbert Crawford, 67, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania and Louis C Defazio, 73, of Fredericksburg, Texas.
Defazio was identified by Jack Brown’s Seaplane Base as an instructor at the facility. In a statement posted on Facebook, they also identified Crawford as a ‘fellow seaplane enthusiast and longtime customer of the Base.’
‘Our prayers and deepest sympathies are with the families, friends, and entire Polk State community as we walk through this dark time together,’ the organization said.
The second aircraft was a Cherokee Piper 161 fixed wing plane being flown by a student and instructor from Polk State College in Winter Haven.
Faith Irene Baker, 24, was an instructor at Sunrise Aviation in Ormond Beach. The other occupant was her student, Zachary Jean Mace, 19.
‘Our Polk State College family is devastated by this tragedy,’ university president Angela Garcia Falconetti stated.
‘My heart goes out to the families and friends of those who were killed in today’s crash,’ Sheriff Judd said. ‘Please keep the families in your prayers during this difficult and stressful time.’
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration announced they would both conduct investigations into the cause of the deadly crash.
Both planes are still submerged in Lake Hartridge, and will be removed by an NTSB contractor during their investigation.
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