A mid-air plane crash between two aircraft resulted in the deaths of three people on Tuesday. According to CNN , the plane crashed in the Florida Everglades just after 1 p.m. Several eyewitnesses reported seeing an explosion in the air over alligator-infested waters and called 911. When Miami-Dade County Authorities arrived on the scene, they found two of the victim’s bodies in the wreckage of the first plane. The third body was found in the second plane. Authorities are reportedly looking for a fourth victim, but the region near the crash is dense, and can only be reached by airboat or helicopter.
None of the victims have been identified, and their families have yet to be notified of their passing.
“We do have three deceased. There could be a possible fourth,” said Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta.
Responders to the aircraft collision include “Miccosukee police, Florida Highway Patrol, park rangers, private airboat operators, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and Miami-Dade firefighters and police.”
Authorities believe that the planes were conducting a “training exercise,” with a pilot and student in each plane. “That’s why we’re thinking perhaps there is a fourth person,” Zabaleta added.
One eyewitness, Daniel Miralles, describes the sound of the collision in an interview with the New York Post . “I heard a weird sound. It sounded like a plane, but it sounded too close. It sounded like an 18-wheeler going 100 mph down the street. Debris fell literally on the street and into that canal right there. That’s how close it happened to us.”
Both planes, a Cessna 172 and a Piper PA-34, belonged to the Dean International Flight School. The crash reportedly occurred just nine miles from the Miami Executive Airport, which is the airport the school operates out of.
According to the Sun-Sentinel , the Dean International Flight School has been in business for over 35 years, but it has had over 23 plane crashes within just the past 10 years. Three of those crashes have been fatal. According to Robert Dean, the owner of the school, they have taught up to 7,000 students from around the world.
Two of the school’s planes crashed in 2017, and according to NBC 6 , the school then had nearly 80 percent of their planes decommissioned due to maintenance issues like faulty breaks.
CNN notes that it is still unclear as to the cause of the collision, and that “the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are investigating” the collision.
