3 people killed after 2 small planes collide in air over central Florida

3 killed after small planes collide over Fla.

WILLISTON, Fla. — A single-engine plane and a kit-built aircraft collided in clear, sunny skies Saturday over central Florida, killing three people, authorities said.

A Williston woman who thought she heard a gunshot discovered the kit-built plane upside down in a field near her house and called authorities, Levy Sheriff’s Office Capt. Evan Sullivan. When emergency responders arrived, they found a second plane engulfed in flames in a dense wooded area several hundred yards away.

“The fire was extremely intense and at the area of the Piper 32 crash an oak tree caught on fire some 40 feet above ground,” Sullivan said.

Debris from the planes was spread about a half-mile long and a quarter-mile wide, Sullivan said. Two bodies were found in the Piper in the wooded area and a 73-year-old man was discovered in the other plane.

Sullivan wouldn’t release the victims’ names, saying next of kin had to be notified.

The kit-built aircraft, also known as an experimental plane, left from Ocala, about 25 miles southeast of Williston, but Sullivan didn’t know where it was headed. The Piper took off from the Williston Municipal Airport and it was not clear where it was going.

“There are a lot of unknowns right now,” he said.