SANFORD, Fla. - 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.
A firefighter who responded to the blazes was also hurt trying to reach the victims.
Eric Domnitz, who lives just down the street from the crash, said the fire was twice the size of a normal two-story house in the neighborhood. He hurried with a fire extinguisher to a horrific scene and said he saw some of the victims.
"It's in my head. The woman was just melting. It looked like her skin was just melting off," he said. "The guy, he was melting. He looked like wax."
The twin-engine Cessna 310 had been traveling from Daytona Beach to Lakeland when the pilot declared smoke in the cockpit shortly before the crash, said Kathleen Bergen with the Federal Aviation Administration.
The pilot was trying to land at the Orlando Sanford International Airport when the plane went down in the neighborhood about a mile or two north of the airport, Bergen said.
The plane was registered to Competitor Liaison Bureau Inc. of Daytona Beach, a company records show is registered under the name of William C. France, the late chairman of NASCAR who died June 4 at his Daytona Beach home.
Lesa France Kennedy, whose husband died in the plane crash, is France's daughter. International Speedway Corporation, of which she is president, owns or operates 13 of the nation's major motorsports facilities.
... and all others regardless.
