Originally Published: 01 FEB 24 20:29 ET
Updated: 02 FEB 24 09:00 ET
By Jamiel Lynch, Amanda Jackson and Aya Elamroussi, CNN
(CNN) — A preliminary FAA report published Friday morning shows three people were killed Thursday evening in a fiery crash when a small plane smashed into a mobile home park in Clearwater, Florida.
The report’s list of three fatalities indicates one among the flight crew and two people on the ground. The crash occurred at 7:27 p.m. on Thursday.
The FAA notes the “aircraft crashed under unknown circumstances into a mobile home park,” and reports there was a “post crash fire.”
There were no other occupants on the plane besides the pilot, according to the FAA.
Firefighters responded to the crash site at the Bayside Waters mobile home park, city Fire Chief Scott Ehlers said Thursday during a news briefing. They found four trailer homes on fire – one of which had the crashed plane inside, Ehlers said.
The plane was found “predominately’ in one mobile home, the fire chief said Thursday. Crews were still trying to tame hotspots and reach the bodies of those who died, Ehlers added.
Clearwater resident Steven Ascari told CNN he heard what sounded like an explosion Thursday evening that shook his apartment.
“And next thing you know a giant pillar of smoke was seen,” he said in a message.
As officials received a call about a fire at the mobile home park, there was a report at the same time of a plane experiencing an emergency at an airport, Ehlers said Thursday. The plane ultimately went off radar about 3 miles north of a runway, the same location as the mobile home park.
The aircraft, a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35, crashed into the residential area after the pilot reported an engine failure, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson told CNN.
The other mobile homes that were ablaze have been cleared, and there were no victims there, the fire chief said Thursday night.
Clearwater, home to more than 110,000 people, is about 23 miles west of Tampa on Florida’s central west coast.
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