One person is dead following a crash of a twin engine plane just west of the New Smyrna Beach Municipal Airport early Wednesday afternoon.
Volusia County Fire Rescue is assisting New Smyrna Beach firefighters at 1283 Tumblin Dr., where the plane is said to have impacted trees, sending debris across the property. The crash site is less than a mile from the airport.
The Cessna 337 had taken off from the airport when it went down sometime later in an open field near the city's sports complex. The tower manager at the airport called in the crash at 1:13 p.m. The plane broke apart upon impact, killing the pilot, identified as Paul Rooy, 56, of Daytona Beach. No one else was on board, and no one on the ground was injured.
The Volusia County Sheriff's Office is conducting a death investigation, while the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will be called in to investigate the cause of the crash, according to Gary Davidson, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.
