A plane crash east of the Gainesville Regional Airport on Friday resulted in the death of three Key West residents.
The people killed in the crash were pilot Andrew Ricciuti, 43, and passengers Gordon Taylor, 52 and his wife, Barbara Taylor, 51.
Summer Hallett, a spokeswoman for the Gainesville Police Department, said Gordon Taylor had been on his way to Shands at UF to receive an organ transplant.
Ricciuti had been a pilot in the Navy for 20 years and had been with Key West Aviation for between three and four years, Hallett said.
Because the air traffic control tower in Gainesville was closed, air traffic control in Jacksonville had cleared the small plane, a Partenavia two-engine, to land at the Gainesville Regional Airport at 2:45 a.m., FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.
When air traffic control did not hear back from the plane, Gainesville officials were notified at 5:15 a.m., Bergen said.
Hallet said officers from GPD were on the scene immediately after receiving the call and found the debris field at 7:09 a.m.
Five local agencies, the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board responded to the 6800 block of Northeast 39th Avenue for a search and rescue effort.
Senior Air Safety Investigator Robert Gretz, of the National Transportation Saftey Board said the group will investigate the pilot, the plane and the environment over the next six months to a year before determining a probable cause for the crash.
