Plane Crashes in Florida Killing Five

Filed in archive Aviation News on July 10, 2007

A plane traveling from Daytona Beach to Lakeland crashed into a Florida neighborhood, killing the two passengers and three people on the ground. The crash also started two house fires and burned three people.

A small plane carrying the husband of a NASCAR executive crashed into a neighborhood while trying to make an emergency landing Tuesday, killing five people and starting two house fires that seriously burned three other people, authorities said.

NASCAR confirmed that Dr. Bruce Kennedy, a Daytona Beach plastic surgeon and husband of International Speedway Corporation President Lesa France Kennedy, and NASCAR Aviation pilot Michael Klemm were among the dead.

The identities of the victims on the ground were not immediately released.

Authorities said an adult and two children died in the homes that were quickly gutted by the fire after the airplane crashed in the suburban Orlando neighborhood around 8:40 a.m.

Matt Minnetto, an investigator with the Sanford Fire Department, said the plane itself was scattered in several pieces across the area. Among the three survivors was a boy about 10 years old who had burns over 80 to 90 percent of his body, Minnetto said.

"It was an extremely intense fire," Minnetto said. The crash had spilled aviation fuel, contributing to the fire's spread.

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