Pilot, Student Headed To North Perry Airport Hospitalized After Plane Crash Near Miramar Strip Mall
MIRAMAR (CBSMiami) – It was a close call for two women on board a small plane that was forced to make an emergency landing on a sidewalk by a strip mall in Miramar Monday night.
A representative of UAN Venture Partners of Odessa, the registered owner of the plane, told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that an instructor and a student pilot were on board when the plane went down on Palm Avenue just north of Miramar Parkway, brushing a utility pole.
He said that even though police said the women were taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in serious condition, they were going to be OK.
Another company spokesman said the plane had left Naples at 9:30 p.m. and was headed to North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines when it made the emergency landing at 10:40 p.m.
During a dispatch call, one officer said, "I got multiple PD units with one small engine plane off the side of the road. We are establishing a command. They are going to have to be extricated."
Fire rescue was heard saying, "We are going to have two adult females as trauma alerts."
The wings of the single engine Cessna 172 – a Skyhawk – were intact, while the propeller had broken off. The battered plane was towed away at 4:30 p.m. So after nearly 18 hours, the scene was finally clear and police were gone.
On Tuesday afternoon, FAA inspectors scoured the plane for clues. They were then joined by the Miramar Fire Rescue crew members who had extracted the women. The inspectors said they were working with investigators from the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board.
It's not known what caused this crash and if the plane had run out of gas or if there was pilot error or a mechanical defect with the Skyhawk.
Jeremiah Garçon, a longtime resident, said he was discouraged that there was another accident involving a plane that was either headed to or leaving North Perry Airport.
On March 16, a plane that had taken off from the airport crashed in to a car, taking the life of 4-year-old Taylor Bishop while he was in the vehicle with his mother Megan.
Garçon said, "There are too many accidents in such a short period of time. It makes me nervous every time this happens. This happens too much."
After the March tragedy, Broward Mayor Steve Geller said there had been 14 plane crashes in the past five years tied to planes leaving or flying to North Perry Airport.
Authorities said pilot error is the main cause for most accidents. According to NTSB records, at least five of those accidents at North Perry Airport were the result of planes running out of fuel.
