A small turboprop aircraft, on a mission to deliver hurricane relief supplies to Jamaica, met an unfortunate fate when it crashed into a pond situated within a residential area of Coral Springs, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Monday morning. The tragic incident occurred just a few minutes after the plane took off, according to authorities.
Officials have reported that no victims were discovered during the initial rescue operations. As the day progressed, the effort transitioned into a recovery mission. At this time, the exact number of individuals aboard the aircraft remains uncertain.
Mike Moser, the Deputy Chief of the Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department, stated that emergency teams arrived on the scene swiftly after receiving the distress call. Fortunately, no residential properties suffered damage, although some debris was found scattered near the retention pond.
Television footage from the area depicted a broken fence in the backyard of a house adjacent to the pond, marking the site where the plane went down.
“There was no visible wreckage of the plane itself,” Moser explained. “The crews followed the debris trail leading into the water.”
He further noted, “Our divers entered the water to conduct a search for any possible victims but, unfortunately, did not locate anyone.”
Broward County, where the plane took off from and where the crash occurred, is home to a vibrant Caribbean American community that sprang into action to collect relief supplies following Hurricane Melissa. A powerful Category 5 hurricane, Melissa slammed into Jamaica late last month, leaving a path of destruction.
Moser said police would take over recovery efforts, and federal aviation officials would investigate the cause of the crash.
Coral Springs police didnât immediately respond to calls and emails from AP.
The small Beechcraft King Air plane took off from the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at approximately 10.14am local time, according to a spokesperson for the City of Fort Lauderdale, which owns and operates the airport. The crash occurred soon after takeoff, with Coral Springs police officers and firefighters responding at 10.19 am, just five minutes later.
According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane was manufactured in 1976. King Air models can seat between seven and 12 people, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Federal records showed the registered owner of the plane is listed as International Air Services, a company that markets itself as specialising in providing trust agreements to non-U.S. citizens that enable them to register their aircraft with the FAA.
A person who answered the companyâs phone on Monday afternoon declined to answer questions from a reporter, stating âno commentâ and ending the phone call.
Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on October 28, tied for the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane in history. The storm also caused devastation in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and prompted relief organisations to mobilise.
Local government officials in Jamaica said in the days after the storm that Melissa had ripped the roofs off 120,000 structures, affecting some 90,000 families in the islandâs especially hard-hit western region. A week after Melissa’s landfall in Jamaica, more than 2000 people were still reported to be in shelters.
