another death in the nascar upper family

[Nathan]

SANFORD, Fla. — Three adults and two children were killed Tuesday when a small plane registered to a company linked to NASCAR's late chairman crashed into a suburban Orlando neighborhood Tuesday, authorities said.

 

Bruce Kennedy, husband of International Speedway Corp. official Lesa France Kennedy, was killed while piloting the plane, the Daytona Beach Journal reported.

 

A spokeswoman for the Sanford Police Department said at least three people on the ground were injured in the crash about 8:40 a.m. Two houses were also burned. Two children in the houses were killed, officials said Thursday.

 

The identities of the dead were not released and NASCAR did not immediately provide any details. A NASCAR spokesman in Charlotte, N.C., said the public relations staff in Daytona Beach was "in the information gathering stage" and that he knew no details at this point.

 

Smoke rose from homes at the Preserves at Lake Monroe subdivision here and firefighters doused them in water. "It was an extremely intense fire," said Matt Minnetto, a fire investigator with Sanford Fire Department.

 

Minnetto said a boy, believed to be about 10 years old, was among the injured, with about 80 percent to 90 percent of his body burned.

 

The twin-engine Cessna 310 was registered to Competitor Liaison Bureau Inc. of Daytona Beach, said Kathleen Bergen with the Federal Aviation Administration.

 

Competitor Liaison is based in Daytona Beach and registered under the name of William C. France, the late chairman of NASCAR, online records from the Department of State Division of Corporations show. James C. France also is listed as an officer of the company.

 

The plane was traveling from Daytona Beach to Lakeland when the pilot declared smoke in the cockpit. The plane tried to land at the Orlando Sanford International Airport when it crashed about a mile or two north of the airport, Bergen said.

 

A message left with an airport spokeswoman was not immediately returned.

 

Lou-Ann Cappola, a schoolteacher who lives about a block away from the crash site, said residents of the subdivision are accustomed to noise from a nearby railyard. So she didn't think twice of it.

 

"I thought the trains were banging and making noise," she said. "I was on the porch and looked up and saw smoke — black, black smoke. At that point, all the sirens were coming."

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.