Boca Raton Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Michael LaSalle said the three people who were on the aircraft were killed and a man who was in a vehicle on the ground was injured. He suffered non-life threatening injuries.
"One gentleman on the ground, he hit a tree because of all the debris and the fire," LaSalle said. "It was from the fireball on the ground, he drove through apparently the fireball."
"I saw the plane fly low and continued through and next thing I know it's on top, right in front of me and exploded, impacted right in front of my car and it crashed I tried to steer out of the way but it was pretty much unavoidable," Tafur said. "Got out of the car that was on fire, through the flames, and made it to safety."
Aerial footage from Chopper 6 showed debris scattered across a roadway and on train tracks as fire crews hosed down the wreckage. The three bodies were seen in the wreckage and Tafur's damaged vehicle was also nearby next to a tree.
LaSalle said crews responded after there were reports that the plane was having mechanical issues. LaSalle said crews responded after there were reports that the plane was having mechanical issues.
"Somebody said on frequency that they are declaring an emergency for a stuck rudder," Scarpato said. "All we heard five minutes after was just sirens, sirens, so just devastating.” Witnesses who work nearby and saw the crash said they saw the plane flying low and then felt their building shake when it crashed.
"It basically came back, it was looking like maybe it was going towards the airport, approaching and from there I just saw it drop below the trees," witness Dillon Smith said. "I heard the boom and basically shake of the windows simultaneously and then saw a cloud of smoke."
"We thought when we saw it, it skimmed like the top of like one of the buildings, that's how low it was," witness David Simon said. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Kurt Gibson arrived Friday afternoon to conduct an investigation.
Gibson said the plane, which was built in 1977, had taken off around 10:15 and was in the air eight to ten minutes. He said he was collecting data and interviewing witnesses as part of the investigation.
"Our mission at the NTSB is to figure out what happened, why it happened and what we can do to prevent this from happening again," Gibson said. The airport was closed but reopened around noon. Tri-Rail officials said there were delays due to the crash and a bus service was being used to get passengers around the area.
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