Harrowing new footage has been released of the moment a private jet crashes into a busy Florida highway, killing two pilots and allowing a flight attendant and two passengers to escape from the burning wreckage.
The Bombardier Challenger 600 carrying five people lost two engines and crashed onto Interstate 75 while attempting to land at nearby Naples Airport around 3:15 p.m. Friday.
drive recorder video It shows a car rapidly descending on a highway as it continues to drive in the same direction, before suddenly colliding and erupting into a fireball.
A car can be seen approaching the scene and stopping as black smoke billows from the aircraft.
“I thought, ‘What is that?'” Miami truck driver Alfonso Del Nodal told NBC Miami. Footage from his drive recorder. “Then I realized the plane was coming down. And a few seconds later it crashed.”
Del Nodal said he stopped his car and tried to help.
“But then the explosion happened and the first thing that came to mind was 9/11,” he told the outlet. “Then we heard ‘Bang!’ Bam! And we saw three people coming down.”
According to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, those killed in the crash were Captain Edward Daniel Murphy, 50, and co-pilot Frederick Hoffman, 65.
Crew member Sydney Ann Bosmans, 23, and passengers Aaron Baker, 35, and Audra Green, 23, were onboard the Fort Lauderdale-based Hop-A-Jet Worldwide. He was on a charter flight and was captured on another video escaping the burning plane.
They were taken to a local hospital for their injuries. Their terms were not immediately available.
“Yes! Our pilots! Our pilots!” a woman can be heard screaming in the video. When asked if the pilots were alive, the distraught woman replied: I don’t know much else. ”
In a chilling audio recording, Murphy quietly told airport controllers about losing his engine just before the disaster.
Passing driver Kyle Cavaliere yelled to the survivors to see if anyone was still on the plane.
“Hop-A-Jet 823, lost both engines, emergency,” he said. “We’re going to make an emergency landing. We can land, but we’re not going to reach the runway. We’ve lost both engines.”
Witnesses said the wing clipped a car and dragged it into a wall along the highway.
The plane took off from Ohio State University’s airport in Columbus, Ohio, and was scheduled to land in Naples when Murphy contacted the tower about the emergency.
OSU officials said the plane was not affiliated with the university and they had no further information. The plane was scheduled to return to Fort Lauderdale on Friday afternoon.
