A small plane sputtered and crashed in flames into a Florida shopping centre, injuring at least five people as frightened shoppers rushed from the building, authorities and reports said.
Several people in the supermarket dialled emergency services around 7:20 p.m. to report that the plane had plunged into the complex, the sheriff’s office said yesterday. The callers described seeing the plane sputtering just before it plunged into the building and burst into flames.
The sheriff’s office said a pilot and a passenger from the plane were airlifted to a local hospital. Details on their conditions were not immediately available.
Emergency workers reported that at least five people in all had been injured, two of them with burns, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. A photographer for the newspaper, who went to the shopping centre soon afterward, said the plane appeared to have crashed into the building’s roof.