How the Clearwater small plane crash unfolded

Three people are dead following a small plane crashing into several mobile homes in Clearwater, just a few miles from the local airport.

When firefighters got to the crash site, Thursday night, four trailers were engulfed by flames. The video shows the smoke billowing from the homes.

• RELATED: 3 deaths confirmed after small plane crashes into Clearwater mobile home park

Flight reports indicate the Beechcraft V35B Bonanza left from Vero Beach Regional at 6:08 p.m., en route to Clearwater Air Park.

However, the pilot reported engine failure less than an hour after takeoff.

Shortly before the crash, the pilot was heard saying, “Mayday, mayday, mayday.”

The cause of the crash remains unclear. However, a Bonanza is not a plane someone without experience would fly.

The National Transportation Safety Board is still looking into what led that pilot to make the mayday call.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the pilot reported engine failure an hour into the flight.

Ed Dean heard it, saw it, and, fearing the worst, began recording.

“I can confirm there are multiple fatalities both in the aircraft and in the mobile home,” said Clearwater Fire Chief Scott Ehlers, at the scene of the crash.

The victims’ identities, one in the plane and two in Clearwater’s Bayside Waters Mobile Home Park, have not been released.

Clearwater Fire and Rescue said the fire spread to at least four of the trailers.

“When airplanes come down, they come down where they come down,” said Lee Collins, the CEO of National Flight Training Alliance.

Less than an hour after takeoff, the plane came crashing down just north of the Clearwater Air Park. Collins knows the area well, and it’s densely populated.

“If you look at the ground tracks that they have from the radar, he was just about three-quarters of a mile from the shoreline of the Inner Harbor there,” said Collins, “so, turning to the left and landing on the water at night would have been a risky proposition, so the only opportunities then were to try to either make the airport or, as we say, hope for the best.”

Collins and NFTA teach you to fly the plane until it stops moving. You go through your checklist and try to maintain control.

We don’t know what led up to the mayday call, nor the pilot’s experience or background or what was happening in the cockpit.

“What was primary on the pilot’s mind? Was he running through a checklist? Was he trying to get the engine restarted? He might have been doing certain things that made looking outside and judging between landing spots A, B or C probably not at the top of his list,” said Collins.

Closer to SWFL, we have seen near misses. Small planes come down, and it is the worst-case scenario where they can’t land on the water or in an open field but around people.