LAKELAND, Fla. – A Monday evening flight between two friends turned fatal after a single-seater experimental aircraft broke apart mid-air and plummeted into a remote Polk County cow pasture.
The crash occurred around 8 p.m. about a mile off Moore Road in Lakeland, according to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. The pilot, whose identity is being withheld until family members are notified, had taken off from Bartow earlier in the evening.
According to investigators, the pilot was meeting up with another flyer to practice formation flying over the countryside.
“It was a beautiful afternoon to do that,” Sheriff Judd said during a press briefing Monday night. “Unfortunately, it ended in horrible tragedy.”
The second pilot witnessed the entire event unfold from his own aircraft. According to Judd, the companion looked down after realizing his partner’s plane had suddenly vanished from formation.
“He said he looked down when he saw his partner had disappeared, just in time to see the plane apparently come apart and it immediately crashed straight down into the ground,” Judd said. “When we arrived, that’s exactly what we found.”
Emergency responders located the wreckage in the isolated pasture, confirming the pilot died at the scene. No other injuries or property damage on the ground were reported.
Judd described the aircraft as a single-seater experimental model capable of cruising at speeds near 200 mph.
It remains unclear what triggered the structural failure. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have been called in to lead the investigation into the cause of the crash.
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