ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Two people are dead after a plane crash in St. Johns County on Monday, Florida Highway Patrol confirmed.
They were both passengers on the plane.
An FHP report states the plane crashed in a wooded area south of County Road 312 and US-1
The plane had left from Northeast Florida Regional Airport but had turned back due to "unknown issues" at the time of the crash, according to the report.
A call to air traffic control revealed that the pilot had planned to turn back to the airport when the crash happened.
He told an air traffic controller that his door "just popped open," and he was coming back for a landing.
"Do you need any assistance or anything or are you just going to land and close it?" the controller asked.
"I'm just going to land and close it," he said calmly.
“Okay, we’ll work all that out when you get on the ground and get situated," the controller responded.
Afterward, the controller became concerned and began to call around to other pilots.
“He had a door pop open, he was just turning back to land. We’ve lost him out there. We’ve lost him on the radio. I can’t find him," the controller is heard saying on recordings.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) told First Coast News that the aircraft involved in the crash was a Mooney M20.
SJSO was on the scene along with members of the Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Fish and Wildlife and other responding agencies due to the "severity of the crash," a report states.
A neighbor living nearby heard the plane crash.
"We kind of heard the plane stop and then the crash," said Brandi Aker, a resident of the Cordova Palms neighborhood. "My stepdad was on the back porch. He said he saw it looking like it had just taken off and maybe something had gone wrong and they were turning around."
Palm added her stepfather saw the plane "just drop" out of the sky.
Another neighbor said she heard a loud noise at the time of the crash.
"I heard a strong sound and I thought it was a plane crash," said Gina Carducci, who lives nearby. "I went to my bathroom in a higher place in the house and I couldn’t see anything. Not even smoke. But the sound was very strong."
The crash is currently under investigation by the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration.
