Associated Press
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
12:11 PM
SANFORD, Fla. -- A small plane registered to a company linked to NASCAR's late chairman crashed into a suburban Orlando neighborhood Tuesday, killing at least two people on board and an adult and two children on the ground, authorities said.
Two homes were destroyed in fires sparked by the crash.
The identities of the dead were not released and NASCAR did not immediately provide any details. A NASCAR spokesman in Charlotte, N.C., said the public relations staff in Daytona Beach was "in the information gathering stage" and that he knew no details at this point.
Smoke rose from homes at the Preserves at Lake Monroe subdivision here and firefighters doused them in water. "It was an extremely intense fire," said Matt Minnetto, a fire investigator with Sanford Fire Department.
Minnetto said a boy, believed to be about 10 years old, was among the victims, with about 80 percent to 90 percent of his body burned. It was unclear whether the boy survived.
The twin-engine Cessna 310 was registered to Competitor Liaison Bureau Inc. of Daytona Beach, said Kathleen Bergen with the Federal Aviation Administration.
A firefighter who responded to the fires was also hurt, though not seriously.
Competitor Liaison is based in Daytona Beach and registered under the name of William C. France, the late chairman of NASCAR, online records from the Department of State Division of Corporations show. James C. France also is listed as an officer of the company.
The plane was traveling from Daytona Beach to Lakeland when the pilot declared smoke in the cockpit. The plane tried to land at the Orlando Sanford International Airport when it crashed about a mile or two north of the airport, Bergen said.
The crash spilled aviation fuel into homes and contributed to the fire's spread.
"The plane's in numerous pieces throughout the five or six homes' backyard," he said.
A message left with an airport spokeswoman was not immediately returned.
Lou-Ann Cappola, a schoolteacher who lives about a block away from the crash site, said residents of the subdivision are accustomed to noise from a nearby railyard. So she didn't think twice of it.
"I thought the trains were banging and making noise," she said. "I was on the porch and looked up and saw smoke -- black, black smoke. At that point, all the sirens were coming."