3 die when plane hits house in Florida

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PALM COAST, Fla., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A small plane crashed into a house in Florida Friday afternoon, killing all three people on board, but no one on the ground, authorities said.

Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Justin Asbury said the 1957 Beech Bonanza H-35 slammed into the kitchen and living room of a Palm Coast home near the Flagler County Airport about 2:20 p.m., the Florida Times-Union reported.

A woman in the house, Susan Crockett, was in a back bedroom and climbed out a window, Asbury told the newspaper. She was checked out at a hospital and found to have no injuries.

Jessica Crockett said her mother was alone in the house and the plane crash is "all kind of a blur."

"My mom's a fighter for sure," Crockett told reporters. "... She just remembered trying to get out. She said the house was on fire and she just got out. She did know it was a plane because she could hear it. We hear planes all the time."

The crash set the house on fire.

"There's no broken trees so he nose-dived straight down," a neighbor, Jeff Sheeley, said.

The Highway Patrol said the plane, registered in the British Virgin Islands, was en route from Fort Pierce, Fla., to Knoxville, Tenn. The pilot declared an emergency after the plane began shaking and was diverted to the county airport, the newspaper said.

The names of the victims were not reported.