Four people were killed when two planes collided over central Florida on Tuesday, March 7.
At around 2:00 p.m. police responded to a 911 call about the collision over a lake.
Law enforcement agencies in Winter Haven, Florida, launched a search and rescue operation to locate the passengers aboard the planes that collided above Lake Hartridge near Winter Haven Regional Airport.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office identified the dead passengers – a pilot and flight instructor with Sunrise Aviation, Faith Irene Baker, 24; a Polk State College student, Zachary Jean Mace, 19; Randall Elbert Crawford, 67, from Carlisle, Pennsylvania; and Louis C. Defazio, 78, from Fredricksburg, Texas
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that one of the planes was operated by Sunrise Aviation for Polk State College and the other by Jack Brown’s Seaplane Base.
According to police, one plane was floating beneath the surface of the water and the other was about 21 feet below the lake bed.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the collision.
