DELAND -- The four-seater airplane that crashed into Publix was
largely consumed by fire, a senior investigator with the National Safety
Transportation Board said this afternoon.
"The majority of the airplane was consumed by fire," said Luke Schiada, Senior Air Safety Investigator with the National Safety Transportation Board. "It makes the investigation more difficult because of the damage to the plane."
The airplane, a Seawind 3000, is an experimental amateur-built aircraft with a 340-horsepower engine manufactured in 2002, Schiada said. It is not known who was flying the aircraft when it went down, but it's owned by Kim Presbrey, who was onboard the aircraft with Thomas Rhodes.
Investigators will spend the day documenting the wreckage inside the Publix on International Speedway Boulevard to determine what may have caused the airplane to go down, Schiada said.
The plane will then be moved to a secure facility for further examination, Schiada said.
Investigators will also be looking at the history of the aircarft, its maintenance history and the background of the pilot, Schiada said.
The airplane took off from the DeLand Municpal Airport and crashed at 7:20 p.m. It is not yet known where the aircarft was headed, Schiada said.
According to DeLand police, five people were injured in the crash. The people on the plane -- Rhodes and Presbrey -- suffered severe burns and were airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center.
Lisa Cordova and April Morris were treated at Florida Hospital DeLand and released last night. Brendan Beitler, 20, is still at the Oralndo Regional Medical Center in stable condition, said DeLand police Sgt. Chris Estes. Beitler, a Stetson University student, appeared this morning in a photo on his Facebook page in a hospital bed giving a thumb's up.
Crime scene tape still surrounded the parking lot this morning as county and federal officials try to determine what caused the plane to crash into the store Monday night.
DeLand Police Lt. Jack Waples, who has been inside the building, said the plane went directly through the roof. "There is a big gaping hole in what looks like aisles five and six."
He said debris is scattered all over the store.
Asked what the plane looked like Waples said, "It's burned; the only thing I recognize is the engine."
Representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration are inside the building, photographing and conducting a preliminary investigation. They will await the arrival of the National Transportation Safety Administration, who will do the same thing.
After federal investigators finish, the city of DeLand's building inspectors will move in to check the safety and structure of the building, said Waples.
The store was crowded with shoppers when the plane went down, sending a ball of fire through the store. Officials said there is a 25-foot square hole in the roof.
As officials prepare to figure out what went wrong, a chain spokeswoman said today all the employees working at the store are acccounted for and none suffered injuries.
"All the associates have been sent to area stores to work," said Maria Brous, a Publix spokeswoman, in an interview at the store parking lot this morning.
Brous said the first concern of the business was the well-being of the associates.
The store employs about 175 associates, Brous said. Brous, who had not entered the store yet, said the loss in products in the store is the last thing they are worried about.
Brous said the store is accommodating customers who filled prescriptions at the store's pharmacy by transferring all prescriptions to nearby Publix stores where they can pick them up.
Brous said the goal is to reopen the store as soon as possible to continue serving customers but said she did not have a timeline when that would occur.
DeLand, Florida -- Shoppers got quite a shock when a small plane crashed into Publix.
"The majority of the airplane was consumed by fire," said Luke Schiada, Senior Air Safety Investigator with the National Safety Transportation Board. "It makes the investigation more difficult because of the damage to the plane."
The airplane, a Seawind 3000, is an experimental amateur-built aircraft with a 340-horsepower engine manufactured in 2002, Schiada said. It is not known who was flying the aircraft when it went down, but it's owned by Kim Presbrey, who was onboard the aircraft with Thomas Rhodes.
Investigators will spend the day documenting the wreckage inside the Publix on International Speedway Boulevard to determine what may have caused the airplane to go down, Schiada said.
The plane will then be moved to a secure facility for further examination, Schiada said.
Investigators will also be looking at the history of the aircarft, its maintenance history and the background of the pilot, Schiada said.
The airplane took off from the DeLand Municpal Airport and crashed at 7:20 p.m. It is not yet known where the aircarft was headed, Schiada said.
According to DeLand police, five people were injured in the crash. The people on the plane -- Rhodes and Presbrey -- suffered severe burns and were airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center.
Lisa Cordova and April Morris were treated at Florida Hospital DeLand and released last night. Brendan Beitler, 20, is still at the Oralndo Regional Medical Center in stable condition, said DeLand police Sgt. Chris Estes. Beitler, a Stetson University student, appeared this morning in a photo on his Facebook page in a hospital bed giving a thumb's up.
Crime scene tape still surrounded the parking lot this morning as county and federal officials try to determine what caused the plane to crash into the store Monday night.
DeLand Police Lt. Jack Waples, who has been inside the building, said the plane went directly through the roof. "There is a big gaping hole in what looks like aisles five and six."
He said debris is scattered all over the store.
Asked what the plane looked like Waples said, "It's burned; the only thing I recognize is the engine."
Representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration are inside the building, photographing and conducting a preliminary investigation. They will await the arrival of the National Transportation Safety Administration, who will do the same thing.
After federal investigators finish, the city of DeLand's building inspectors will move in to check the safety and structure of the building, said Waples.
The store was crowded with shoppers when the plane went down, sending a ball of fire through the store. Officials said there is a 25-foot square hole in the roof.
As officials prepare to figure out what went wrong, a chain spokeswoman said today all the employees working at the store are acccounted for and none suffered injuries.
"All the associates have been sent to area stores to work," said Maria Brous, a Publix spokeswoman, in an interview at the store parking lot this morning.
Brous said the first concern of the business was the well-being of the associates.
The store employs about 175 associates, Brous said. Brous, who had not entered the store yet, said the loss in products in the store is the last thing they are worried about.
Brous said the store is accommodating customers who filled prescriptions at the store's pharmacy by transferring all prescriptions to nearby Publix stores where they can pick them up.
Brous said the goal is to reopen the store as soon as possible to continue serving customers but said she did not have a timeline when that would occur.
DeLand, Florida -- Shoppers got quite a shock when a small plane crashed into Publix.
It happened in DeLand, in Volusia County, about 40 miles northeast of Orlando. We know five people were hurt.
The Publix is almost right in the flight path of the airport.
Witnesses say the experimental plane sputtered and then fell out of
the sky. It flew over a Lowe's and a retention pond before it smashed
into the Publix supermarket.
The hero here is apparently the manager of the meat department.
Our fellow CNN affiliate, WFTV, reports the plane crashed into that meat department at about 7:30 Monday night.
The pilot and co-pilot climbed out of the wreckage with their clothes on fire.
The manager was the one who put out those fires and got the two men out of the chaos inside the store.
Witnesses said the folks in the store were panicked with good reason -- one man was reminded of his time at war.
"There was a zip zoom, like artillery. If you've been on the business end of that, you know what it is," the witness told CNN affiliate Central Florida News 13.
Officials told WFTV there were 33 employees and 35 shoppers in the store at the time.
Three shoppers were hurt, but none seriously.
The two people who were in the plane were flown to Orlando Regional Medical Center with severe burns.
Publix is based in the Tampa Bay area; its headquarters complex opened in Lakeland in 1951.
DELAND, Fla. -- Police and sheriff's officials in Volusia County confirm that a single-engine plane has crashed into a Publix in DeLand.
The crash occurred at the Northgate Shopping Center in the 200 block of International Speedway Boulevard about 7:30 p.m.
DeLand fire officials said five people were injured. Three of those injured were burn patients, and two of them were airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center with third-degree burns, according to fire department officials. It was not known how badly the other two victims were injured.
Chopper 2's Dan McCarthy spoke with the pilot of a medical transport helicopter used at the scene who said the plane was an experimental aircraft that took off from DeLand and suffered engine failure. The pilot said the two people who were airlifted to ORMC were the only two on board the plane and had burns that did not appear to be life-threatening.
Witnesses at the scene described seeing the plane sputter, hit the building and burst into flames not far from a municipal airport. Fire from the plane was extinguished about an hour after the crash.
DELAND -- A small plane has crashed into Publix Super Market in the Northgate Shopping Center in DeLand.
The shopping center is on East International Speedway Boulevard, about a mile from DeLand Airport.
Reporter Saul Saenz says a total of five people were hurt, three were
seriously hurt, according to emergency crews. Two of those seriously
hurt people were inside the plane. Saenz says no fatalities have been
reported.
Sgt. Chris Estes with DeLand Police says three people with serious
burns were taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center. Estes says this was
a double prop experimental plane.
At one point, this was considered a three-alarm fire.
Randy Felix, who says he was in the Publix at the time of the crash,
said he was in the deli section when he heard the rumbling. He said
lights then went off, and then a plume of fire pushed to the front of
the store. Felix says it affected about five to six aisles, and seemed
to happen in the center of the store.
Customers started running to get out. Felix says he saw one customer with his legs badly burned.
Craig Maddox, whose son works at the Publix, told us the small plane
crashed through the roof. He said he got his information from one of the
Publix managers. He says all of the employees made it out okay.
Darlene Trezkop, who witnessed the crash, said the plane was flying fast and low when it crashed into the building.
Another witness, Stephen Lloyd, says he and his children saw the
plane take off, turned his head for a moment, then heard the plane hit
the building and saw the plume of smoke.
Evan Wallace, another witness, says he saw two people coming out of
the back of the store on stretchers. He says he was told by Volusia
County Sheriff's deputies that they were the pilot and co-pilot.
Pedro Pavel, 11, was outside the store with his mother. He said he
heard the plane sputter, and crash into the building. He then felt the
ground shake, and feared there would be a bigger explosion. He said his
mother kept trying to get him in the car, but he felt paralyzed as he
watched people run out of the store.
Walt Logan, a Bright House Networks employee, said black smoke can
still be seen from the building as late as 8 p.m. The building is part
of a strip mall with some small and large businesses. Logan, also tells
us that onlookers were pushed back because the gas line to the Publix
had not been shut off yet. That gas line has since been turned off.
Authorities say a small plane has crashed into a central Florida shopping center, and reports indicated at least five people have been injured.
The Volusia County Sheriff's Office reports that several people at the Northgate Shopping Center in Deland called 911 around 7:20 p.m. Monday about the crash. They described seeing the plane sputter, hit the building and burst into flames not far from a municipal airport.
The sheriff's office reports a pilot and a passenger aboard were airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center.
Separately, The Daytona Beach News-Journal said emergency workers reported at least five people were injured, two of them with burns. A News-Journal photographer at the scene said the plane appeared to have crashed into the roof of a Publix chain supermarket.
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