A small plane crashed into a parking lot near a South Florida airport Friday afternoon, killing all three people onboard and burning about a dozen vehicles. No one on the ground was hurt.
Fort Lauderdale firefighters responded about 4:23 p.m. Friday, March 15, 2013 to a plane crash at RJ Asset Recovery, 964 NE 53rd Court, about one mile east of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. The FAA reports the aircraft was a Piper PA-31 Navajo. Witnesses reported the aircraft was making a bank turn — possibly attempting to return to the airport — before it dropped to the ground suddenly.
Three victims on board the aircraft were killed. Firefighters fought the aircraft fire and fire involving several vehicles and a boat in a parking lot next to a warehouse.
A similar aircraft crashed in the 600 block of Portwine Road in Riverwoods on Monday, November 28, 2011. The aircraft that crashed in Riverwoods was found to be low on fuel. The crash immediately killed pilot, a medical transport patient, and the patient’s wife. A paramedic and the co-pilot survived the plane crash.
Video from WSVN-TV shows the smoke-filled scene of apparent plane crash in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Local reports say a plane went down near the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.
Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (KFXE) serves over 250,000 aircraft operations per year, and is the eighth busiest General Aviation center in the United States. General aviation (GA) is all civil aviation operations other than scheduled air services and non-scheduled air transport operations.
The airport is designated as general aviation reliever facility for the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport by the FAA.
Series of bystander videos of plane crash east of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.
File photo: Piper Navajo.