BOCA RATON, Fla. — WPTV is speaking to people who were near Friday's plane crash in Boca Raton that claimed the lives of three people aboard the aircraft and injured one person on the ground.
We spoke to Jared Scarpato, a freshman at the Lynn University flight school, who was studying for an end-of-course flight exam at the airport when he heard a report of an emergency on their university air traffic frequency.
WATCH BELOW: Aviation student calls tragedy 'traumatic experience'
"There was something that was happening with the rudder," Scarpato said. "It sounded like a stuck rudder, and that's super, super dangerous. This guy was circling the airport, apparently he couldn't turn right, so he was only turning left."
The 18-year-old student said the pilot was trying to land at the airport before going down.
"I said to my instructor and everybody outside that, 'he is very, very low,'" Scarpato said. "We ended up losing sight of him on that final leg (before trying to land), and all we saw was a big explosion and a plume of smoke. All of us were incredibly shell-shocked."
Calling it a "traumatic experience," he said it was only about "three seconds" when he and others lost sight of the plane that they then saw the explosion.
WATCH BELOW: Driver escapes from car after driving through flames
Scarpato said he was keeping the pilot and the other victims in his prayers.
"These guys were 100% trying their absolute best to get on the ground safely," Scarpato said. "Just devastating."
Despite the fatal crash, he said the incident doesn't affect his decision to become a pilot.
"Not at all, I'd get in a plane an hour from now," Scarpato said. "This doesn't change my mind about anything."
WATCH BELOW: 19-year-old aviation student 'shaken' by crash
Justin Torres, 19, another aviation student at Lynn University, said he was walking to class when he saw a plane circling very low.
"I could immediately tell that something was wrong because (the plane) was like 200 feet instead of 1,000 feet," Torres said.
He also said the pilot was having a rudder problem.
He called the situation "nerve-wracking" and left him "shaken," but it doesn't change his mind about becoming a pilot.
WATCH BELOW: Boca Raton High School students describe 'loud boom'
Two students at Boca Raton High School, Keeley Buckley and Delilah Buczynski, described seeing the plane crash near their school, which is located just south of where the aircraft crashed.
Buckley said she was on the second story of the school when she saw the plane before it went down.
"It was really close to our school, and then I went to class, and then we heard it (crash)," Buckley said.
"We heard a loud boom, Buczynski said. "Announcements (at the school) came on that everyone needed to stay in their classrooms. ... There were kids leaving class to see it."
Buczynski said they could smell the jet fuel from the crash.
WATCH BELOW: Witness says 'it didn't look good'
Another witness, Thomas Sheil, said he is in the process of getting his pilot's license and was near the scene shortly after the plane went down.
Sheil, who was visiting from New York, said he saw a small plane fly over the area "very sharply" before the crash and later saw smoke in the area.
"(First responders) came within seconds," Sheil said. "It didn't look that good."
Sheil, 36, said this crash makes him a little hesitant about moving forward with getting his pilot's license.
"I've been hesitant about it for a while, and this has definitely (made me) hold off until we figure out what's going on with all the plane (crashes) this year," Sheil said.
Boca Raton
