A Beechcraft Bonanza V35 similar to the one that crashed into a mobile home park this week in Clearwater, Fla., is pictured. The three people who died in accident were identified Saturday. Photo by Peter Bakema/Wikimedia Commons
Feb. 3 (UPI) — Police on Saturday identified the three people who died when a small aircraft crashed into a mobile home park in Clearwater, Fla., earlier this week.
The Clearwater Police Department identified the three victims as Martha Parry, 86, of Clearwater and a resident of the mobile home; Mary Ellen Pender, 54, of Treasure Island, Fla.; and Jemin Patel, 54, of Melbourne Beach, Fla., who was piloting the aircraft.
Patel took off from the Vero Beach Regional Airport shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday in a single-engine Bonanza V35 private plane. He was the only person aboard the aircraft and was flying to the Clearwater Air Park in Pinellas County, according to data from FlightAware tracked by WTSP-TV.
About an hour after departing the Vero Beach Airport, Patel used the aircraft’s radio to call out “mayday, mayday, mayday,” which is a common distress call used by pilots.
The pilot reported engine trouble and soon afterwards crashed into the mobile home park. The aircraft struck Parry’s mobile home while she was hosting Pender during a visit and set several other homes on fire, according to the Clearwater Fire & Rescue Department.
Local police, firefighters and medical personnel arrived at the mobile home community near U.S. Hwy. 19 several minutes after the plane crash occurred.
Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board continue investigating the crash’s cause and were scheduled to remove the plane’s wreckage from the scene on Saturday.
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