3 victims identified in deadly plane crash that set 3 homes on fire, Florida cops say

Three people were killed when a plane fell from the sky and slammed into a Florida neighborhood shortly after sunset, according to a preliminary report by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The victims have been identified as Martha Parry, 86, Mary Ellen Pender, 54, and Jemin Patel, 54, who was piloting the plane.

It happened shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, in Clearwater and responding firefighters discovered the downed plane inside a burning home. Clearwater is just west of Tampa.

A search of the scene is ongoing, and the dead include people who were in the plane and in the home, Clearwater Fire Chief Scott Ehlers said at a late night news conference.

The crash site was identified as a “very large” mobile home park known as Bayside Waters.

“At 7:08 p.m. we received a report of a structure fire,” Ehlers said.

“Simultaneously, the aircraft units out of (St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport) received ... a response regarding an aircraft that had some trouble. During that conversation ... their tower lost them off radar 3 miles north of the runway.”

Firefighters arrived at 7:15 p.m. to find three homes “heavily involved” in flames and a fourth that had sustained some damage, he said.

“The aircraft was found in the one structure, predominantly right in that one structure,” Ehlers said. said. “I can confirmed that we have several fatalities both from the aircraft and within the mobile home. We are still working to make sure there is no additional.”

The fatalities included two women who were in the home at 2647 Pagoda Drive, officials said. Martha Parry lived in the home and Mary Ellen Pender was visiting from Treasure Island, officials said.

“As many as nine people had been inside the mobile home on Pagoda Drive shortly before the plane crash, but all but two had left the residence,” the Clearwater Police Department said in a release.

The pilot, Jemin Patel, lived in Melbourne Beach, officials said.

The plane was a Beech single-engine aircraft that “seats up to 5 passengers and one pilot,” Findaircraft.com reports.

”Aircraft crashed under unknown circumstances into a mobile home park and post crash fire,” the report states.

It’s believed residents were able to escape the burning homes on either side of the crash site uninjured, he said. However, one “secondary” injury was reported by someone in the community, he said. That person refused hospital treatment.

Neighbors in the community told station WTSP they felt their homes vibrating. One compared the falling plane to a “solid white ball, just coming down.”

“Everything was popping like propane tanks,” neighbor Frances Yont told TV station. “We couldn’t do anything ... it was horrible.”

The cause of the crash remains under investigation. The pilot repeated the word “mayday” three times before the plane fell off radar, officials said.

This story was originally published February 2, 2024 at 4:30 AM with the headline "3 victims identified in deadly plane crash that set 3 homes on fire, Florida cops say."