Two small planes collide in mid-air over Florida lake, four dead

bbc ^ | 03/08/2023 | Brandon Drenon

[BenLurkin]

Three of the four victims have been identified, including a flight instructor, a college student and a 67-year-old man.

Where the planes departed from and what caused the deadly collision remains unknown... the crash happened around 14:00 EST (19:00 GMT) near the Winter Haven Regional Airport & FBO.

After the collision, one of the planes was 21ft (6m) under water while the other was partially submerged.

One of the two planes involved was a Cherokee Piper 161. It carried Faith Irene Baker, 24, a flight instructor with Sunrise Aviation, and Zachary Jean Mace, 19, a student at Polk State College.

The Cherokee Piper 161, a fixed-wing aircraft, was being operated on behalf of Polk State College, local media reported.

Mr Judd said the other plane was a Piper J-3 Club, a float plane, that was carrying Randall Elbert Crawford, 67, and one other person

[Track9]

24 yr old flight instructor. Think I see the problem.

[Yo-Yo]

67 year old Cub flyer. I think I see another problem.

[VastRWCon]

Another BBC story. Where is the American Press? Oh yea orange man bad.

[NWFree]

I stay out of those death traps

Some even have parachutes if you get lucky

[Red Badger]

Aviation Ping..............

[RckyRaCoCo]

You got it.

[C210N]

Yep, I had one of those.

Very knowledgeable and with plenty of energy and zeal for flying.

But, the wisdom is lacking - that takes years. They say a pilot’s license is not a license to fly, but a license to continue learning.

I recall as a student with this instructor getting caught by bad weather and scud running. In the days before GPS’s, we “swooped” over a highway to try and read the sign from above to know where we were, and to figure out what direction to go in.

We were ‘IFR’, “I Follow Roads”.

[libertylover]

24 yr old flight instructor. Think I see the problem.

No, you don't. When I was 24 years old I was repairing some of the most sophisticated aircraft in the world (at the time), some of them loaded with nuclear weapons. And he may have been flying since he was 16.

[Bikkuri]

"Cherokee Piper"

Brits even get the name wrong :P (Piper Cherokee).

[Red Badger]

They drive on the left side of the road...............

[Track9]

My grandfather would tell me about flying roads all over florida. Loved those stories.

[libertylover]

67 year old Cub flyer. I think I see another problem.

FYI 67 ain't old.

[Track9]

I think it was a ‘she’.

[FamiliarFace]

Ping. Your neck of the woods?

[FamiliarFace]

Younguns think 67 means you’re about to die, even if you are still quite active.

[chajin]

Mine. This is the second small plane crash here in about a year, the first one was a single plane crashing into a house about three miles from my home.

There are three small-plane airports in the county and one “international”, so private planes are always in the sky here.

[vaskypilot]

Flight instructors who are 24 years old. The Federal Aviation Adminstration measures experience by flight hours. Often young polits perform flight instruction to build flight hours. I would need to know more details on this event.

[VTenigma]

Low wing vs High wing aircraft. They never saw each other.

[Vaquero]

In Alaska IFR stands for I follow rivers