Piper Mirage Was Had Three On Board, Was Heading To Haiti

A Piper Mirage carrying three people and relief supplies to Haiti went down in a residential neighborhood in Clearwater, FL Sunday morning. Fortunately, no one on board the aircraft was seriously injured, and there were no injuries on the ground.

Pilot Ernesto Gonzalez and passengers Charles Uslander and Daisy Schneider all escaped serious injury when the plane hit several trees, a power pole, and a house before impacting the ground between houses. The residents of one of the houses were having breakfast when they heard the impact and saw a fireball in their back yard.

Witnesses told the Tampa Tribune that the Mirage struggled to get airborne on takeoff from Clearwater Airpark (KCLW) and went down only a few blocks from the airport. Uslander was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. 16-year-old Schneider was not taken to the hospital, even though she was pulled from the wreckage by neighbors.

The plane started a fire in the attic of the first house it hit before impacting the ground. The airplane landed right-side up, and no one on the ground was injured.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov