Irishmen injured in Florida plane crash

Two Irishmen are in a critical but stable condition in hospital after the single engine plane they were flying in narrowly missed an apartment building and crashed into a public park in Florida.

A third man and a teenage girl, also from Ireland, walked out of the aircraft with minor injuries.

People enjoying the quiet of the waterside park in St Petersburg scattered and ran as they realised the Piper Cherokee craft was heading straight for them.

It narrowly missed the apartment building, before descending rapidly, one of the wings ripping off as it hit a tree. Still in the air, it spun, sending debris across a wide area before crashing to the grass, bouncing and coming to a halt. No one on the ground was injured.

St Petersburg police said all four, including a 17-year-old girl, are Irish citizens.

They were identified as Grant Jordon, aged 57, who was the pilot, Aloysius Ryan, aged 52, Eamonn Harnell, aged 48, and the teenage girl, who was not named.

Locals who witnessed the mid-morning Monday crash described the aftermath.

When the plane finally came to land, one of the doors swung open and two people, Harnell and the girl stepped out.

But witness Justin De Stoppelaire told reporters he saw the pilot limp with his head back.

He was unconscious when the paramedics arrived on the scene.

When the pilot woke as he was placed on a stretcher he could not tell the paramedics his name, where he had come from, or why he had been flying to St Petersburg.

He and Mr Ryan remain in the Baymont Health hospital in St Petersburg. The other two were treated for minor injuries.

Mr Jordon later told police the engine failed on the more than 40 year old craft as he began his approach to the airport and he was forced to make the emergency landing.

A group of mothers had been sitting in the grass below the tree the plane hit. Walking away they looked back and saw the plane descending rapidly towards where they had been sitting. One of the mothers grabbed her child and ran.

Veteran crash investigator, Captain John Cox, in an interview with local news station, WFLA, praised the pilot for finding a spot to bring the plane down. “He made some good choices that he was able to find an opening and get the airplane in there,” he said.

The plane had left Tallahassee Regional Airport at 8.14am and was scheduled to land at another Florida airport. It was registered to Advanced Technology Training, a company from Gretna, Louisiana.

Mike Puetz, of the St Petersburg police, said the injuries suffered by the two men are not life threatening. He said the investigation into what happened is in the hands of the Federal Aviation Administration.

The National Transportation Safety Board is also involved.

There was no smell of fuel after the plane crash-landed.