WINTER HAVEN, Fla.—A student pilot was trying to land a small plane at a central Florida airport when it collided with another small plane, sending both aircraft crashing into a lake and killing four people, a preliminary report released Tuesday said.
A Piper J-3 Cub seaplane and a Piper PA-28 Cherokee fixed-wing plane were both conducting instructional flights when they collided March 7 over Lake Hartridge near Winter Haven Regional Airport, a National Transportation Safety Board report said. Winter Haven is about 40 miles southwest of Orlando.
According to recorded radio transmissions, the student pilot in the PA-28 was performing landing maneuvers to a runway at the nearby airport. Four seconds after the PA-28 pilot’s final transmission, the plane collided nearly straight on with the J-3 at about 575 feet above sea level, officials said….