A small plane carrying five people crashed on Interstate 75 near Naples, Fla., on Friday afternoon, exploding in flames and killing two people, according to officials. They said that three of those onboard were able to get out of the plane.
The plane, a Bombardier Challenger 600 series jet, crashed on the highway around 3:15 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. It was not immediately clear if the plane crashed into any cars or whether anyone on the ground was injured.
Photos and video footage from the scene showed the aircraft’s fuselage in flames and a large plume of smoke billowing above the crash site.
The aircraft departed from the Ohio State University Airport in Columbus, Ohio, said Robin King, the director of communications for Naples Airport.
“They were scheduled to land about 3:15 here in Naples, and about two or three minutes before that, our tower received word from the pilots that they have, quote, lost both engines,” Ms. King said. “We don’t know exactly what that means. We lost contact.”
The plane crashed two to three miles from the airport, Ms. King said. Three of the five people on the airplane were able to get out of the airplane, she added.
A six-mile stretch of the interstate will be closed for at least 24 hours, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.
Local officials encouraged people to avoid the area while the F.A.A. and the National Transportation Safety Board investigated, officials said. Florida Highway Patrol troopers were also at the scene.
The aircraft, which officials said had the registration number N823KD, was scheduled to travel to Fort Lauderdale from Naples on Friday afternoon, according to FlightAware.
This is a developing story.
