All lanes of Interstate 75 in Florida were shut down outside Naples on Friday afternoon after a plane with five people on board crashed onto the highway and struck a vehicle, the Florida Highway Patrol announced.
The Collier County Sheriff Department confirmed that at least two people have died, but didn’t specify if the casualties were people from the plane or the vehicle. Footage from the scene showed the plane, a Bombardier Challenger 600, engulfed in flames. The FAA said the plane crashed at 3:45 p.m.
Online flight records showed the plane belonged to Hop-a-Jet, a private charter company based in Florida.
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NBC 2, a local news station in southwest Florida, reported that the plane “lost an engine” as it was headed for Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport and tried to make a landing in Naples, which is approximately 100 miles to its west. The plane crashed three miles from the runway.
Robin King, the director of communications f0r the Naples Airport Authority, told multiple media outlets that the plane’s pilots radioed that they’d “lost both engines.” She said three people were able to escape from the plane.
Nobody involved in the crash was immediately identified by authorities.
Local 10 reported that the pilot was heard in an air traffic control recording saying he’d lost both engines and was unable to make it to a runway.
The plane had departed from the Ohio State University Executive Airport in Columbus, Ohio.
The Florida Highway Patrol warned drivers that southbound lanes of the interstate may be closed for as long as 24 hours.
