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The Bombardier Challenger 600 business jet, which took off from
Ohio, was on approach to Naples Airport when the pilot radioed
that both the plane's turbofan engines had failed, the National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a statement.
Video and photos from the scene showed the aircraft engulfed in
flames and smoke after it crash-landed on Interstate 75 near
Naples, on southwestern Florida's Gulf Coast, and came to rest
beside a roadside retaining wall.
The Florida Highway Patrol said the plane also struck a car and
a pickup truck on the highway.
The jet was carrying five people, according to both the NTSB and
the Federal Aviation Administration.
Highway Patrol spokesperson Molly Best said three people from
the plane survived and that two other people were killed. But
she declined to specify whether the two fatalities were from the
plane or the vehicles involved, saying next of kin were still
being notified.
The number of people who were riding in the impacted car and
truck was not given.
Miami-based television station WPLG said the pilot was heard on
an air traffic control audio recording telling the Naples
control tower that the plane had lost its two engines and was
unable to make it to the airport.
WPLG said the plane, operated by the Hop-a-Jet charter aviation
carrier, was ultimately destined for an executive airport in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where that company is based. The
flight originated at Ohio State University Airport in Columbus,
the NTSB said.
Members of an NTSB crash investigation team arrived on the scene
within a few hours, an agency spokesperson said.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting
by Dan Whitcomb in Long Beach and Kanishka Singh and Jasper
Ward, both in Washington; Editing by David Ljunggren and Sandra
Maler)
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