Pilot Was Working Towards Multi-Engine Rating

An instructor and student pilot working on a multi-engine rating were fatally injured Thursday morning when the Piper PA-23 they were aboard went down, impacting a warehouse in Lakeland, FL.

The accident occurred at about 0820 EST Thursday morning, according to television station WFTS. Lakeland Police identified the persons on board as 62-year-old flight instructor Terry Butt, and 41-year-old Greg Geng. The plane belonged to the Tailwheels, Etc, flight school based at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport. It was not known who was pilot in command at the time of the accident, but friends said that Geng was working on his multi-engine rating because he had recently purchased a multi-engine aircraft.

The building impacted by the plane was owned by Key Safety Systems. Among the chemicals stored in the warehouse, which was unoccupied at the time of the accident, was Nitroguanidine, which is used in automotive air bags. The chemical fire created a hazmat situation at the scene of the accident. The Daytona Beach News Journal reports that it took more than an hour to bring the fire under control.

The warehouse is located about three miles south of the airport.

Janel Vasallo, a spokeswoman for the Lakeland Fire Department, said that a cursory inspection of the warehouse shows " there are no airplane parts or victims to recover. It is suspected that this is due to the high temperature at which the chemical fueled fire burned."

There was no one in the building at the time of the accident, and all of the company's employees have been accounted for.

(PA-23 pictured in file photo. Not accident airplane)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov