The Brief
- A Polk County aircraft crash involving an experimental plane left one young man dead Monday evening in a local cow pasture.
- Two pilots taking off from Bartow and Lakeland planned to fly in formation before one pilot reported his friend’s plane came apart, then crashed.
- The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are launching an investigation to determine the cause of the crash.
POLK COUNTY, Fla. – One young man died Monday evening after his experimental, single-seater plane broke apart and crashed into a Polk County cow pasture.
Aircraft crash response
What we know:
It began as a fun evening for two young men planning to fly in formation. One pilot took off from Bartow, and the other departed from Lakeland.
At about 7:54 p.m. Monday, authorities received a 911 call reporting that a plane went down.
Firefighters reached the aircraft within five minutes, finding the wreckage in a cow pasture and woods about a mile west of Moore Road.
Experimental aircraft wreck
The backstory:…