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A pilot involved in a deadly Clearwater, Florida, plane crash on Thursday night reported engine trouble before slamming into a mobile home park. (Clearwater Police Department via FOX 13)
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A newly released audio recording offered clues to what happened prior to the deadly plane crash that collided into a mobile home park in Clearwater, Florida, on Thursday evening.
In audio from an air traffic control tower, obtained by FOX 13, the pilot is heard conversing with the tower prior to the deadly crash.
“I can’t see the other airport,” the pilot is heard saying. “I’m losing an engine.”
“Oh, f—,” the pilot said.
SMALL PLANE CRASHES INTO FLORIDA MOBILE HOME PARK SPARKING MAJOR FIRE
A small plane crash occurred at a mobile home park south of Clearwater Mall on Thursday in Clearwater, Fla. Multiple homes caught fire. (Credit: Clearwater Fire & Rescue Department)
Residents at the Bayside Waters watch EMS personnel respond after a small plane crashed into the mobile home park in Clearwater, Fla., on Thursday. (Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images)
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Beechcraft Bonanza V35 crashed into a residential area around 7 p.m. local time Thursday.
In the audio, another pilot who witnessed the crash is heard reacting to the fiery collision that decimated multiple mobile homes.
“They went down hard,” the pilot said following the crash. “They’re in flames.”
“It looks like there was a structure fire. Looks like he went into a building,” he added.
Firefighters, police and EMS personnel respond after a small plane crashed into the Bayside Waters mobile home park in Clearwater, Fla., on Thursday. (Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images)
In the three-and-a-half minute recording, the pilot who witnessed the crash can be heard trying to pinpoint the exact location of where the plane went down.
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“He is definitely into a house, a whole house is demolished,” the pilot said. “I just saw him going down at an extremely high rate of speed.”
During a news conference Thursday evening, Clearwater Fire Chief Scott Ehlers said that the fire spread to three other homes.
He said three structures “definitely” have fire damage while an additional home may have also been damaged.
There are “several fatalities both from the aircraft and within the mobile home,” Fire Chief Scott Ehlers said. (Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images)
Firefighters work to put out a fire after a small plane crashed into the Bayside Waters mobile home park in Clearwater, Fla., on Thursday. (Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images)
Video from the scene shows a massive fireball erupting from the park.
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According to the FAA, three people were killed in the crash — two people on the ground and the pilot.
The identities of the victims have not yet been released.
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
She is a native of Massachusetts and is based in Orlando, Florida.
Story tips and ideas can be sent to sarah.rumpf@fox.com and on X: @s_rumpfwhitten.
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