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Plane Crashes in Bonita Springs

Lee County Sheriff's Office
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Chief Joseph Daigle with the Bonita Springs Fire Department and Undersheriff Carmine Marceno at the press conference outside Fire Station No. 26.

A small passenger plane crashed earlier this afternoon near Bonita National Golf Course. Lee County Sheriff's Office held a press conference at Fire Station No. 26 off Bonita Beach Road at 3 p.m.

During this afternoon’s press conference, Undersheriff Carmine Marceno said the plane left Page Field earlier this afternoon and approximately 15 minutes after take-off called in a mayday, or distress call.

“Our team began to immediately work with the fire department to search that immediate area, and when we did, it revealed a small plane crash,” Marceno said. “And, so far, we have confirmed one person is deceased.”

Marceno said the deceased is presumed to be the pilot. It was unclear at the time if there was anyone else on board the plane.

Chief Joseph Daigle with the Bonita Springs Fire Department said, due to the plane’s location in a heavily wooded area near the golf and country club, the departments are also working with the state division of forestry.

“Who are also going to be cutting a line back there, which is going to be clearing a way for our units and also the sheriff’s office to make it back there safely,” Daigle said.

The deceased’s name and other details – like the content of the distress call – are expected to be released as the departments recover more from the crash site.

Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast Live for WGCU News. Rachel came to WGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.Rachel was first contacted by WGCU when she was managing editor of FGCU's student-run media group, Eagle News. She helped take Eagle News from a weekly newspaper to a daily online publication with TV and radio branches within two years, winning the 2016 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Use of Multimedia in a cross-platform series she led for National Coming Out Day. She also won the Mark of Excellence Award for Feature Writing for her five-month coverage of an FGCU student's transition from male to female.As a WGCU reporter, she produced the first radio story in WGCU's Curious Gulf Coast project, which answered the question: Does SWFL Have More Cases of Pediatric Cancer?Rachel graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.