New Smyrna Beach, Florida: Pilot Airlifted After Small Plane Crashes Near Turnbull Bay Road

A small single-engine plane crashed in a wooded area behind Turnbull Bay Road in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, on Wednesday afternoon, and the pilot, the only person on board, was pulled from the wreckage and flown to a Daytona Beach hospital as a trauma alert, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said.

The crash was reported at 2:23 p.m. on Wednesday, November 4, near 3010 Turnbull Bay Road, according to a call entry on the sheriff's office services page cited by the Daytona Beach News-Journal. The New Smyrna Beach air traffic control tower reported the crash, the News-Journal said.

Found from the air

The plane's exact location was not known at first. Ground units searched the area without success until a sheriff's helicopter spotted the wreckage from the air, the News-Journal reported. Volusia County Fire Rescue, the New Smyrna Beach Fire Department and the Volusia Sheriff's Office reached the scene. The New Smyrna Beach Police Department, Volusia County EMS, the Port Orange Police Department and Volusia County Fire Rescue also responded, FOX 35 Orlando reported.

Pilot conscious at the scene

New Smyrna Beach Fire Lt. Adam Sarwi said firefighters extricated the pilot from the aircraft and provided emergency medical care on the scene. Deputies said the pilot was conscious when rescue workers on the ground reached the wreckage, and he was communicating with first responders who reached him. He was flown on Air One to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach for further treatment, the sheriff's office said. City officials in New Smyrna Beach said the pilot was airlifted for trauma related injuries, FOX 35 Orlando reported.

Cause still unknown

The crash remains under investigation, and details of what may have caused the crash are still unknown, officials said. The sheriff's office said the pilot was the sole occupant of the aircraft. By Wednesday night, officials had not released the pilot's name, and they had not stated his condition beyond the trauma injuries that sent him to Halifax Health. They also had not said what type of single-engine aircraft it was, where the flight began, or where it was headed. No other person was reported on board, and no second patient was reported in the first official accounts.

For drivers and residents near Turnbull Bay Road, the first official word was the size of the response itself: deputies, county fire rescue crews, two city fire and police agencies and county EMS all worked the same wooded crash site on Wednesday afternoon while a helicopter that had found the plane from the air then carried its pilot to the hospital.