A small turboprop on a hurricane relief mission to Jamaica crashed into a pond in a gated residential neighborhood of Coral Springs, a Fort Lauderdale suburb, killing two people shortly after takeoff and narrowly missing homes, authorities and a local resident said.
The Coral Springs police department confirmed the deaths Monday afternoon but provided no further details about the plane’s occupants. The Coral Springs-Parkland fire department deputy chief, Mike Moser, said emergency crews arrived within minutes after a call reporting the crash. Initial rescue efforts found no survivors and were shifted to recovery. Crews spotted debris near the retention pond; aerial television footage showed a broken fence in the backyard of a home bordering the pond.
“There was no actual plane to be seen,” Moser said, adding that divers followed a debris trail into the water but did not find victims during rescue attempts.
Resident Kenneth DeTrolio told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that the plane crashed through his backyard, destroying a fence and toppling palm trees before hitting the water. He said debris was scattered across his yard and that his pool and back porch were contaminated by spilled fuel. The smell of fuel lingered inside his home for hours.
Officials warned residents that police would maintain a significant presence while investigators collected evidence.
Broward County, where the plane departed and the crash occurred, is home to a large Caribbean American community that mobilized to collect relief supplies after Hurricane Melissa. The powerful Category 5 hurricane struck Jamaica late last month, causing widespread destruction.
Moser said police would lead recovery efforts and that federal aviation officials would investigate the cause of the crash.
The Beechcraft King Air took off from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at about 10:14 a.m., a city spokesperson said. Coral Springs police and firefighters responded at 10:19 a.m., roughly five minutes after takeoff. FAA records show the plane was manufactured in 1976. King Air models typically seat between seven and 12 people, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Federal records list the registered owner as International Air Services, a company that offers trust agreements enabling non-US citizens to register aircraft with the FAA. A person who answered the company’s phone declined to comment.
Flight-tracking site FlightAware shows the plane made four other trips to or from Jamaica in the past week, flying between George Town in the Cayman Islands and Montego Bay and Negril in Jamaica, then landing in Fort Lauderdale on Friday. It was not immediately clear who organized the flights.
Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on 28 October, tied for the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane in history. The storm also battered Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and triggered relief efforts. Jamaican officials reported that Melissa ripped roofs off about 120,000 structures, affecting roughly 90,000 families in the hard-hit west; more than 2,000 people remained in shelters a week after the storm.
