BARTOW, Fla. — Crews on Friday removed the plane from the scene of a fatal crash in Bartow that claimed two lives.

The crash happened Thursday in front of a home.

Bonnie Powell, 73, and Dennis Powell, 76, of Port Orange, Fla., were killed.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators used a saw to dislodge part of the plane from a front yard chain link fence before using a crane to lift the wreckage onto a truck.

Witnesses saw the plane go upside down and then do a nose dive into the ground.

"It sputtered for a few seconds and it just landed," said neighbor Rebecca Weller.​

Weller said the sound from the sputtering plane sent her family scrambling for safety.

"I didn't know which way to go," she said. "If I went out the back door or if I should go out the front door. So, I automatically went out the front door and that's when I dropped to the ground because I didn't know if stuff was going to fly and hit everybody."

They had good reason to worry.

A piece of debris from the plane broke out the rear windshield of an SUV parked two homes away. 

Air safety investigator Lynn Spencer said the single-engine Mooney plane was one of four small planes that were flying in formation to the Bartow airport.

The NTSB says it is hauling the wreckage to Jacksonville for further inspection.

The small plane did not have a data recorder system on board, investigators said.