Six people are known to be hurt, two of them seriously, when a smaller private airplane crashed onto a Florida highway bridge and ignited north of Miami on the afternoon of May 14th, according to reports from local media.
The aircraft descended onto the Haulover Inlet Bridge at the northern end of Biscayne Bay in Miami Dade County, near Bal Harbour, quickly prior to 1 p.m., according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.
The single-engine Cessna 172 with two passengers and a pilot on board lost engine power after departing from Fort Lauderdale en route to Key West, ABC Miami reporter Jeff Weinsier tweeted.
A video published on Twitter revealed the little aircraft flattened and burning in the middle of the road, sending up plumes of thick black smoke.
Awful private plane crash in #mia @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/LjJg7bgUtM
— Alex Huberman (@lexSayzzz) May 14, 2022
A damaged SUV was seen a short distance away. When it landed on the highway, CBS 4 Miami reported that the airplane struck the SUV.
“When the plane came down, there was what appears to be a head-on collision with that SUV, causing the plane to flip over and then, of course, engulfed in flames,” said Miami-Dade police Detective Alvaro Zabaletta. “Inside the SUV was a female driver with two toddlers. Thankfully, they were transported for just precautionary measures but they are in stable condition, in good condition, at the hospital.”
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue informed CBS that six people were injured, two seriously. One was taken by air rescue to the Ryder Trauma Center, the other to the medical facility by ambulance.
“We don’t have the identities of the people that were on the plane,” said Zabaleta.
It’s not yet clear if the two were in the SUV or the aircraft, however, they had burn injuries, according to NBC-6 South Florida, which would suggest they remained in the aircraft because the SUV did not catch fire.
A different video appears to reveal somebody climbing up out of the airplane after it struck the ground and running around to the opposite as smoke begins to increase, where he helped another man to leap from the wreckage.
That second man then was up to the ground, and bystanders helped him to move away from the aircraft as the fire grew.
The crash is under investigation by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.
