COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. – A newly-released incident report details the moments before a private jet crashed on Interstate 75 near Naples, killing two pilots from Broward County, and how a flight attendant helped the survivors escape before the plane exploded.
Local 10 News obtained the Collier County Sheriff’s Office incident report into the Feb. 9 crash on Tuesday.
The flight, operated by Fort Lauderdale-based charter company Hop-a-Jet, was scheduled to land at the Naples airport from Columbus, Ohio.
According to the CCSO report, flight attendant Sydney Bosmans, 27, told deputies that just before the crash, the Bombardier Challenger 604 suffered a dual engine failure and the pilots told her and the two passengers on board to “brace for impact.”
Bosmans, of Jupiter, told deputies that after the crash “she was able to get the rear door open for the three of them to escape before the explosion.”
Ultimately, she and passengers Aaron Baker, 35, and Audra Green, 24, both of Columbus, survived. The pilots, Edward Daniel Murphy, 50, and Ian Frederick Hofmann, 65, did not.
Murphy and Hofmann were from Oakland Park and Pompano Beach respectively.
The survivors were treated at a nearby hospital.
Federal authorities continued to investigate the crash as of Tuesday.