The pilot of a small plane escaped in the nick of time after the aircraft crashed in a Lakeland neighborhood.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office says about 3 p.m. a single engine plane started having mechanical problems in the air before crashing into the neighborhood, near the Lakeland Linder Regional Airport.
People living along Pipkin Creek in Lakeland captured the dramatic scene- a plane down and on fire in their quiet neighborhood.
Julie Richmond said she was home when a man started frantically banging on her door.
"He just said ‘there's a plane crash, plane crash.’ So I just went out there and I opened the door and I ran out and he said "call 911" and I called 911,” she said.
The sheriff's office says the pilot, 55-year-old Richard simile of Auburn, Alabama radioed he was having mechanical problems.
They say he tried to land at Lakeland Linder Airport but didn't make it. Instead, he narrowly missed an open field and came down by a row of houses and a horse farm.
"All the horses in the horse farm were just running around going absolutely insane so the first thing we did was we pulled in and got the horses under control and then we came out here and there was just pieces everywhere, just the plane was just spread out everywhere,” said Logan Schmidt, witness.
The pilot managed to get out of the plane and walked away with minor injuries but witnesses say as soon as he escaped, the plane caught on fire.
"The plane was trashed. The whole front end was all done. Just mangled,” said Keaton Dixson, witness.
No one on the ground was hurt but the back end of a boat sitting next to the plane was badly damaged, as well.
"I'm just glad nobody got hurt. I'm glad he got out fine and I'm glad, because that's my friend's house, the boat, and everything and I'm glad they weren't home and it did not crash into any house,” Richmond said.
We reached the pilot by phone and he declined to comment. Officials say the crash was not related to the Sun N' Fun International Fly-In and Expo which starts Tuesday.