A PRIVATE PLANE with four Irish people on board has made a dramatic crash landing in a park in the centre of St Petersburg, Florida, local media report.

All four were treated for their injuries, with two men – pilot Grant Jordan (57) and Aloysius Ryan (52) – in stable but critical condition at a nearby hospital, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

The other two passengers – Eamonn Harnell (48), and an unnamed teenage girl – are believed to have suffered minor injuries.

Witnesses at Vinoy Park in the city said they saw the single-engine Piper Cherokee aircraft flying dangerously low at around 10.30 am (local time) on Monday.

The plane narrowly missed an apartment block, before hitting a tree in the park, which removed the left wing.

A spokesperson from Albert Whitted airport in St Petersburg told local ABC television that the aircraft had departed the nearby city of Tallahassee at 8.29 am Monday, and was scheduled to arrive in St Petersburg at 9.59 am.

The National Transportation Safety Board is currently investigating the accident, but witnesses told the local Fox television station that the plane’s engine may have failed shortly before crash-landing.

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