Two people were killed after a small plane carrying supplies to hurricane-ravaged Jamaica crashed in a residential neighborhood pond in Florida early Monday morning, officials confirmed.
The Coral Springs Police Department announced that two people “tragically lost their lives” during the crash, according to a press release.
The plane was seen plummeting into the pond in Coral Springs, a suburb near Fort Lauderdale, harrowing surveillance footage from a nearby home shows.
The turboprop plane appeared to clip the edge of the land while its nose slammed into the water, according to the video.
The moment the turboprop plane slammed into the water in Coral Springs, Florida, on Monday. X / AZ_Intel_
The wreckage of the doomed plane is seen, including a wheel, moments after crashing in Florida. WSVN
Emergency personnel from Coral Springs and Coconut Creek are on scene where a plane crashed in the Windsor Bay community in Coral Springs. APFire officials said that no victims were found during the initial rescue efforts, and they have since transitioned to a recovery mission. It’s not yet known how many people were aboard the plane, which was taking relief supplies to Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa slammed into the island nation two weeks ago.
“There was no actual plane to be seen. They followed the debris trail to the water. We had divers that entered the water and tried to search for any victims and didn’t find any,” Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department Deputy Chief Mike Moser said.
Moser added that no homes were damaged and much of the debris was scattered around the retention pond.
A spokesperson for the City of Fort Lauderdale said that the plane took off from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport shortly around 10:14 a.m. Authorities said they responded to reports of the crash in Coral Springs just five minutes later.
The plane, manufactured by Beechcraft King Air, typically seats anywhere from seven to 12 people, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Moser said police would take over recovery efforts while federal aviation officials investigate the cause of the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed in a post on X that it was investigating the crash.
Jamaica was nearly leveled by Hurricane Melissa in late October, which made landfall as a Category 5 storm. The entire island nation lost power, and most of its infrastructure was quickly overwhelmed, with many of its 14 parishes reporting devastating floods.
In the immediate aftermath, Jamaican officials couldn’t estimate how many were killed by the “storm of the century.”
Jamaican officials have tentatively confirmed 32 deaths relating to the hurricane, with some still under investigation.
Florida’s Broward County, where the plane took off, is home to a thriving Caribbean American community that spearheaded relief and recovery efforts from afar.
The Florida crash comes on the heels of last week’s fiery UPS plane crash in Kentucky that killed the three pilots on board and 11 others on the ground, including a 3-year-old girl and her grandfather.
With Post wires
