(CBS News)SANFORD, Fla. A small plane carrying the husband of a NASCAR executive crashed into two houses while trying to make an emergency landing Tuesday, killing five people and starting fires that seriously burned three others, authorities said.
NASCAR confirmed that Dr. Bruce Kennedy, a Daytona Beach plastic surgeon and husband of International Speedway Corporation President Lesa France Kennedy, and NASCAR Aviation pilot Michael Klemm were among the dead.
The identities of the other victims on the ground were not immediately released.
Authorities said an adult and two children died in the homes that caught fire when the airplane crashed in the suburban Orlando neighborhood Tuesday morning.
Both of the homes that were hit were largely gutted by the flames, and smoke could be seen rising from the neighborhood where the plane went down around 8:40 a.m.
Matt Minnetto, a fire investigator with Sanford Fire Department, said two people aboard the plane were confirmed dead in the crash and the plane itself was scattered in several pieces. At least three people were injured in one of the homes, including two adults and a boy about 10 years old who had burns over 80 to 90 percent of his body, Minnetto said.
"They have shut down the entire neighborhood, and they are evacuating people in the area because there have been explosions since the plane hit the home," reports CBS affiliate WKMG.
The twin engine Cessna 310 was registered to Competitor Liaison Bureau Inc. of Daytona Beach, said Kathleen Bergen with the Federal Aviation Administration. Competitor Liaison is based in Daytona Beach and registered under the name of William C. France, the late chairman of NASCAR, online records from the Department of State Division of Corporations show. James C. France also is listed as an officer of the company.
A NASCAR spokesman in Charlotte, N.C., said the public relations staff in Daytona Beach was "in the information gathering stage" and that he knew no details at this point.
A NASCAR official told the Orlando Sentinel that a driver was not on the plane.
The plane was traveling from Daytona Beach to Lakeland when the pilot declared smoke in the cockpit. The pilot was attempting to land at the Orlando Sanford International Airport when the plane crashed about a mile or two north of the airport, Bergen said.
Four people were in the home at the time, including two adults, a 10-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl, reports the Orlando Sentinel. Four people, including one firefighter, were taken to Sanford's Central Florida Regional Hospital for treatment.
Two of the patients, with critical burns, were flown by helicopter to Orlando Regional Medical Center, reports the Orlando Sentinel. ORMC had received one child and one adult as of 9:50 this morning and were evaluating their injuries, said ORMC spokesman Joe Brown. A third helicopter remained on the scene.
The other two victims - one with chest pains and one an injured firefighter, were in stable condition at Central Florida Regional. The hospital went on "Code Green" at 9 a.m., ramping up manpower and preparing for multiple injuries. However, by 10 a.m., the hospital reported that it did not expect further patients.
By 10 a.m., firefighters had also put out the fires at 354 and 356 Wilson Bay Court, in the relatively new subdivision near the Central Florida Zoo. Investigators are now trying to determine what happened in the accident.
Neighbors reported hearing a wooshing sound and the crash explosion as they were readying for their days.
"I've never seen so many flames, never in all my life," Marcela Rodriguez told the Orlando Sentinel. She was eating breakfast at a friend's home when the plane crashed two houses away.
Rodriguez said she ran out and was unable to see anyone because of the heat and flames.
Heather Stahley, who also lives in the neighborhood, told the Orlando Sentinel she was upstairs with her two children when she heard the "boom, boom, boom" of the crash.
"Then I saw the two homes engulfed in flames and black smoke," she said. "I just couldn't believe it was happening."
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