A small plane bound for Jamaica on a hurricane relief mission crashed into a pond in a residential area of the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs on Monday morning. Authorities said no survivors were located during rescue efforts. "We do have our police department here with their divers as well, they'll be conducting a recovery mission shortly, we were unable to find any victims or any large pieces of fuselage on our initial dive," Coral Springs Deputy Fire Chief Mike Moser said, per NBC 6. "We have not found an entire plane yet, we believe that it may be broken into smaller pieces, we don't know yet of course, this is very preliminary." Officials say the Beechcraft King Air was en route to Montego Bay.
Witnesses described disturbing scenes. "We heard a big explosion, when we saw all the water rise up in the air we ran towards it to see what happened," David Ubegi tells NBC 6. "We saw all the parts of the plane and some body parts along sides of the houses and when the police arrived we helped them look for the body parts." 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, the AP reports. A fierce Category 5 hurricane, Melissa slammed into Jamaica late last month.
The plane took off from the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at approximately 10:14am, 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 firemen responding at 10:19am, 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.
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