NAPLES, Fla. — A Fort Lauderdale woman who was in a car on a Florida interstate on Friday afternoon recounted what she saw after a plane crashed and burst into flames right in front of her eyes.
The plane, confirmed to have taken off from The Ohio State University Airport, crashed around 3:15 p.m. in Naples after two engines allegedly failed.
On Saturday, authorities tentatively identified the two people who were killed as 50-year-old Edward Murphy and 65-year-old Ian Hofmann, who were both from Florida. Murphy was piloting the plane and Hofmann was his second in command.
The Federal Aviation Administration said that five people were on board. The survivors include a crew member from Florida and two passengers from Columbus.
Brianna Walker, who witnessed the crash, spoke to 10TV just hours afterward to describe what she experienced.
Walker said she was on her way back home from Fort Myers with her best friend and her mom when all of a sudden, her friends' mom yelled, "Plane! Plane! Plane!"
Walker looked up to see the plane just before it attempted to land on the highway.
"It was so close, like right over our head," she said.
Walker explained that as the plane landed, it began gliding across the highway on its wheels before hitting a concrete barrier.
Upon hitting the ground, the plane's wing made contact with a car, causing it to roll into the median.
Walker said that in an instinctual reaction, her friend's mom put their car in reverse to get away from the plane after it burst into flames.
"It was just crazy, we were just going, 'oh my god,'" Walker said.
In an effort to help, she said people began jumping out of their cars and ran toward the plane to try to help any passengers.
"Thank god my friend's mom had noticed the plane because if not, we would have been right next to the car that got hit," Walker said. "Afterward when we were driving away I said, 'That was 10 seconds between life or death.'"
She said that seeing something like this happen right in front of her eyes made her appreciate the small moments that can really make a difference.
"Witnessing it is life-changing. Immediately you just become thankful for that small moment that was between you and death," she said.
This kind of unexpected moment is something that Walker said will stick with her forever.
"It's honestly something I'll never forget for the rest of my life," she said.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, with the NTSB leading the investigation.