GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The National Transportation Safety Board is currently investigating a plane crash that occurred at approximately 4:30 p.m. Sunday in Williston, Florida. All three people on board perished, said Lt. Scott Tummond of Levy County Sheriff’s Office, but the sheriff’s office would not identify the pilot or passengers on the plane.
The aircraft was a twin-engine,1976 Beechcraft 58P Baron model, according to radar track records and photographs of the wreckage. It can carry four people and is widely known for its business and personal use among general aviation pilots.
The plane was owned by the company 424 Ventures L.L.C., which was traced to Garth and Monica Vernon, who run the Vernon & Vernon accounting firm in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Beechcraft’s radar track showed it left Bowling Green, Kentucky, before noon Sunday and flew to north central Florida, where it rapidly descended at more than 3,000 feet per minute, disappearing off the radar southwest of Williston around the same time witnesses reported seeing a plane explode as it struck the peanut field.
The sheriff’s office confirmed the crashed plane was flying from Kentucky and was scheduled to land at Williston Regional Airport, about a mile from the crash and close to where the plane disappeared off the radar.
A witness, Trey Kramer of Williston, said the plane exploded when it crashed and that another plane in the area circled until first responders arrived.
“When I flew over the scene, you could see where it initially crashed into the ground,” Kramer said, “it just blew up, like pieces were everywhere, and I didn’t see anybody.”
A company spokesperson said the firm wasn’t authorized to speak about the incident, would not say whether the Vernons came to work on Monday, and asked a reporter to stop calling to ask about the crash. The Vernons have an adult son, Davis Williams, of St. Petersburg, Florida.
The incident is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.
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