A plane crash in Northeast Gainesville claimed the lives of three South Florida residents early Friday morning.

Gainesville police received a phone call from a state watch point at 5:16 a.m. Stating that they had lost contact with a six-person private aircraft. A few hours later, debris from the plane crash was discovered.

“At approximately 7:09 we received a 911 call once again to our communications center stating that air personnel had found what they believed to be a debris field,” Officer Summer Hallett said.

All three passengers on the plane were killed. The pilot, Andrew Ricciuti, was flying his friend Gordon Bennett Taylor and Taylor's wife Barbara to Gainesville because Gordon was scheduled for a kidney transplant at Shands at UF.