Newly released audio captured the desperate final moments of a pilot who was killed when his plane crashed into a Florida home Thursday.
The frenzied pilot can be heard reporting what appeared to be spontaneous engine failure before hurtling toward the Bayside Waters mobile home park in Clearwater Thursday.
“I can’t see the other airport,” the pilot said in chilling audio obtained by Fox 13.
“I’m losing an engine.”
“Oh, s–t.”
That’s when the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35 crashed into the home, obliterating the property.
The pilot and two people on the ground were killed and several others were injured. None of their identities have yet been revealed.
The audio transmission also included a report from another pilot who witnessed the crash, telling the air control tower that it “went down hard. They’re in flames.”
“He is definitely into a house, a whole house is demolished,” the pilot said. “I just saw him going down at an extremely high rate of speed.”
According to fire officials, responders on the ground had been preparing for an emergency landing at St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport after the pilot reported engine failure.
The aircraft was just 3 miles north of the runway when it went down.
The plane had landed inside a mobile home, reducing the structure to ash. A subsequent fire spread to three other mobile homes, Clearwater Fire Chief Scott Ehlers said.
Video showed the apocalyptic-looking scene, with the plane wreckage still smoldering next to charred buildings and trees.