2 Dead, 1 Hospitalized After Private Plane Crashes into Texas Mobile Home Park and Sets It Ablaze

Mar. 15, 2025

City of Odessa/Facebook

Two people have died and one person has been hospitalized after a plane crashed into a Texas mobile home park in Odessa, Texas.

Officials in Odessashared on social mediathat on Tuesday, Aug. 20 at around 7 a.m., Odessa Fire Rescue responded to reports of an “aircraft incident,” and when they arrived on the scene found “heavy smoke and fire to a few mobile homes and some shop buildings.”

Witnesses told police that “a small aircraft" took off from Odessa-Schlemeyer Field Airport before it crashed, officials said. “The initial damage shows the aircraft hit power lines on Yukon and traveled almost an entire block before going down in the alley near 68th between Alderfer Ave. & Stevenson Ave," they added.

Firefighters putting out flames from the plane crash.City of Odessa/Facebook

The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the passengers of the plane toThe New York Timesas pilot Joseph Vincent Summa, 48, of Bellaire, Texas, and passenger Joleen Cavaretta Weatherly, 49, of Orange, Texas.

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According to the outlet, the plane was a private aircraft and it crashed into a mobile home park.

Griffis said that a witness told officers that he saw the plane “struggle to gain altitude” before the aircraft crashed in an alleyway. He said that “there was a large fire after some explosions,” and Cotton added that the damage extended to “an entire block.”

“It’s obvious the pilot attempted to avoid the houses,” Griffis noted.

He said during the news conference that they did not have any information about what kind of plane crashed. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) toldUSA Todaythat the plane had been a Cessna Citation business jet.

The NTSB and Texas Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will be investigating the cause of the crash, USA Today reported.

source: people.com