Flying Car Crashes In Florida Leaving Two Injured

A flying car crashed in Marion County, Florida, on Tuesday, leaving two injured.

The flying car is the exact same model that was developed by a Florida missionary group, The Indigenous People’s Technology and Education Center, reports The Blaze.

Both passengers aboard the flying car, a pilot, 49, and a passenger said to be in his 20s, were both taken to the Ocala Regional Medical Center in Ocala, Florida. The pilot was transferred to the hospital under a “trauma alert.” The passenger did not suffer life threatening injuries, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

The flying car, called The Maverick, was created by I-TEC to help missionaries travel to remote areas across the globe. This is the third crash involving this model. Crashes occurred in 2012 and 2013 as well.

“We are in the process of training a member of our team from Ecuador so that he can take a Maverick to Ecuador for field testing in multiple environments. We also have plans to get the Maverick into Africa and Southeast Asia. When there is a snakebite or need for medicine, a four or eight-hour hike might cause the treatment to arrive too late, while a four-to-eight-minute flight can save a life. There are many places in the world where either the roads are not dependable or that are beyond roads. This is the environment for which the Maverick was developed,” Jaime Saint of I-TEC told media after the flying car made its debut.

The flying car is powered by a parachute. It can fly 40 mph, and on the ground can go as fast as 100 mph. It is capable of going from 0 to 60 mph in four seconds, Fox News reported.

Marion County deputies responded to the “flying car crash” at the Dunnellon Airport.

“This homemade vehicle managed to make flight with two people inside, but then crashed and caught fire. The NTSB and FAA will not be responding because they do not recognize this as an aircraft,” a statement from the sheriffs office read.

Though the sheriff’s office stated that the FFA did not recognize the vehicle as an aircraft, photos of the flying car released by the sheriff’s office show an FFA aircraft registry number on the vehicle, Fox News reported.

The flying car crashed around 9:30 a.m. at the Dunnellon Airport. Both occupants of the car are being treated for non-life threatening injuries. The crime division team is still gathering evidence from the flying car crash site.