Plane Crash in Fort Lauderdale Kills All Four Passengers
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 12 (UPI) —Four people died when their twin-turbine propeller plane crashed and burst into flames in a wooded area north of the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport on Sunday, according to authorities.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the Piper PA 31 aircraft took off from Orlando at 3:21 p.m. and was inbound for Fort Lauderdale before declaring an emergency and crashing into a nature preserve about 4:30 p.m.
Firefighters cut through a fence and were able to douse the flames within minutes, according to officials.
The tail number of the plane was not immediately available, and the names of the victims have been withheld pending notification of relatives.
Witnesses playing Frisbee nearby described seeing the plane bank eastward before making a sharp dive.
“I heard it and then we looked over and there was smoke, and about 10 of us ran over there to help,” witness Elyssa Service, 22, told The Miami Herald. “The smoke was too big, and by the time that we had gotten there, it was engulfed from the inside out.”
The National Transportation Safety Board usually releases preliminary reports into such incidents within a week, according to the Sun Sentinel, but typically takes up to a year to release a complete report.
