2 killed in ERAU training flight plane crash west of Daytona Beach

April 04--A Federal Aviation Administration pilot examiner and a student pilot were killed when an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University plane crashed during a training flight Wednesday shortly after takeoff from Daytona Beach International Airport, officials said.

The plane crashed about 25 yards west of Tomoka Farms Road, near the Daytona Flea & Farmers Market. Emergency calls came in at 9:54 a.m. with witnesses saying they saw a wing fall off a plane before it crashed. The wing was across Tomoka Farms, to the east and 150-200 yards from the rest of the mangled fuselage.

The identity of the examiner and the male student, a Navy veteran, were not being released pending confirmation of their identifications, officials said. The victims' families had been notified.

"We are devastated by today's tragic aircraft accident that has taken the lives of one of our students as well as another member of the aviation family, an FAA-designated pilot examiner," ERAU spokesperson Ginger Pinholster said in an email statement. "We are devoting every ounce of our energy to learning the details of what happened, and we are working closely with authorities to do so. ... Our entire community is heart-broken. Our deepest sympathies go out to all those affected by this devastating loss."

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Dan Boggs said a press briefing will be at 9 a.m. Thursday near the scene of the crash, the first fatal accident involving an Embry-Riddle plane in this century.

Boggs said the Piper Arrow airplane is well built and he hadn't heard of another losing a wing in flight.

Two 9-1-1 callers said they saw a wing or a piece of the plane come off the aircraft before it crashed across from the flea market.

A dispatcher asked one caller whether the plane had crashed or landed. The man said the wing had fallen on the other side of the road.

"Unfortunately, it crashed very badly," the caller said. "It looked like the wing, it looked like the wing just pulled off and then the fuselage kept on going past the road. And it crashed. I mean it's crashed. I hope the people survived. I don't know."

Another caller said he was on his way to his job site when he saw the crash.

"I saw a piece become detached and the plane crashed in a field," he said.

The dispatcher asked if he saw anyone get out of the plane.

"No. I'm there right now," the caller said. "But I don't see how anybody survived this."

Embry-Riddle students were gathering at the scene late Wednesday morning. Across campus, students were shaken by the news.

"I just think it was tragic accident," ERAU senior Mitchell Licht said. "It's terrible that we lost that student. It's nothing a student should ever have to go through."

ERAU aeronautical sciences major and flight instructor Taylor Fontenot called the mood on campus "very somber." She had known the student since their orientation together in 2016. With them both being Navy vets, they formed an immediate bond.

"He was very smiley person. He always had a big grin on his face," Fontenot said. "He was very down-to-earth and encouraging."

She had last spoken to him Thursday.

"It's a complete shock," she said. "We lost a really good person. It's pretty hard to see a vet go down, especially with our background and what we've all shared and been through."

The FAA said in an email that it was investigating the crash of the plane it identified as a Piper PA-28. The Piper PA-28 is a small single-engine aircraft with low-mounted wings. No distress call was received before the plane went down, officials said.

Embry-Riddle reports 400 training flights departing and arriving daily at Daytona Beach International Airport. The school's website reports the students fly four kinds of aircraft: Cessna 172 Skyhawk, Piper Arrow, Diamond DA42 L-360 and one ACA Super Decathlon.

Given the number of ERAU planes are airborne, the university's accident rate was comparatively low, Pinholster said.

"We have had 10 minor accidents in our last 1.25 million hours. Those 10 accidents were hard landings and bird strikes with no injuries," she said. "The industry average is 5 accidents for every 100,000 hours flown. Our record is more than 5 (times) better than the industry average."

This is the first fatal crash involving an ERAU plane in nearly two decades.

From 1990 to 1999 there were 15 people killed in crashes involving Embry-Riddle planes, FAA records show. Those include ERAU students and those killed in other aircraft, including six deaths in a 1996 mid-air collision. In one of those incidents, in 1998, a student stole an ERAU airplane and purposely crashed it in an act of suicide. Another ERAU student died in a crash involving a private plane in 1996.

Pinholster said late Wednesday night that the student fleet has been grounded.

"The planes are on lockdown and the fleet is grounded for the time being," she said. No timetable has been set for returning the planes to the air.

For pilots like Fontenot, the love of flying outweighs the fear of crashing, she said, adding that she chose ERAU because of its stellar safety record.

"An accident like this, it just kind of brings reality back into check that this is a dangerous career path to go into ... but you're more likely to get in a car accident than you are an airplane accident," Fontenot said. "I'm still willing to take that risk, and I don't think I ever won't be willing to take that risk."

Staff writers Frank Fernandez and Dinah Voyles Pulver contributed to this report.

Explore a database of incidents involving ERAU students or aircraft:

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