Editor's note: This article will be updated as more information is released.
A pilot and a passenger were injured after their small, single-engine airplane crashed into a tree on Northeast Waldo Road on Sunday afternoon.
While no bystanders were injured, the pilot and passenger were taken to a local hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries, Gainesville Fire Rescue Operations Chief Michael Cowart wrote in an email.
The names of the victims and the hospital where they were taken have not been released.
At about noon Sunday, a fire started in the plane’s cockpit as it flew over Gainesville, causing the pilot to make a crash landing in the 1900 block of NE Waldo Road, Gainesville Police Spokesman Officer Ben Tobias wrote in an email.
The plane avoided hitting any cars or pedestrians as it descended toward a median and crashed into the tree, Cowart wrote.
It landed about two miles south from Gainesville Regional Airport and right across the street from Gainesville Family Worship Center.
Northeast Waldo Road will be closed between 16th Avenue and 23rd Avenue until investigators can remove the plane, Cowart wrote.
Contact Martin Vassolo at mvassolo@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @martindvassolo
A single-engine airplane (pictured above) crash landed on the 1900 block of Waldo Road on Sunday afternoon.
