Plane that crashed into Fla. home radioed for help
Why
Moments after a Cessna 421 took of from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at 11:13 a.m. this morning, the pilot radioed the control tower reporting some kind of problem. Told he could come back, the pilot, the only person on board, tried to turn the twin engine prop plane around, but it was already too late. The plane nosedived, witnesses said, severing an Oakland Park house less than a mile from the runway. There was no official word on the pilot's fate, but it didn't look good. "I don't see any possibility of a survivor," said Matt Little, a spokesman for Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, which was offering aid to Oakland Park and Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue trucks at the scene. Executive Airport spokesman Chaz Adams said the plane was headed to Fernandina Beach, near Jacksonville. Fortunately, no one was home at 5240 NW First Ave. when the plane slammed into it, he said. At least three people lived in the house. Eddie Mujica and his coworkers watched the drama unfold from an office building a short distance north of the crash site. "We saw the plane turn sideways, and then it just nosedived," he said. Then came the smoke. "It's not something you see every day," he said. Mujica, a Twitter user (emujica), quickly took a picture of the rising smoke and sent a picture to his followers with this message: "Whoa, small plane just crashed outside my office window!" Another witness, Maria Alfaro, gave NBC-6 a similar account. "I saw the plane so close to the roof. It tried to turn and it went down." Television news and official sources originally gave conflicting accounts of the number of people on board, but Adams and the Federal Aviation Administrations said the pilot was the only person on board. "Shortly after it got in the air, it did report trouble to the tower," Adams said. "The tower cleared it to come back and land. In trying to make it back, that's when it went down." The plane is owned by Sebring Air Charter, with offices in Tamarac. Residents said they didn't hear the crash, but first realized what happened when they saw the smoke. "They need to stop flying here," said Kerrie Interlandi, a neighborhood resident echoing the concern of many who complained that plane crashes in the area occur too often. This is at least the fifth crash involving planes taking off from Executive Airport since June 2004. FPL spokeswoman Sharon Bennett said power was shut down to 1,644 customers in the neighborhood after the crash. Emergency officials requested the action for safety reasons, Bennett said.
Search Terms:
cessna 421, cessna, king air 200, beechcraft king air 200
References:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/sfl-cessna.box,http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/sfl-plane-crash-into-house-bn041709,http://www.kansascity.com/934/gallery/1147609.html,http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sfl-plane-crash-into-house-bn041709,http://news.lalate.com/2009/04/17/cessna-421-broward-crash/,http://agonist.org/20090417/plane_crashes_into_oakland_park_home,http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/04/airplane_crashes_into_home_nea.html
