crash
No fatalities reported as cargo plane crashes in residential area in...
BY ERIKA BOLSTAD, ASHLEY FANTZ and WANDA J. DEMARZO
[email protected]
No fatalities reported as cargo plane crashes in residential area in Lauderdale
A DC-3 cargo plane crashed shortly after 3:30 p.m. today in a residential area shortly after takeoff from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, hitting trees and nipping homes.
All three people aboard got out of the plane and were taken to a local hospital, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and police. There were no fatalities reported in the crash.
The plane was still taking off and was trying to make an emergency landing when it crashed.
Television reports showed flames licking from the twin engine propeller plane that appeared almost destroyed on the ground.
Immediately after the crash, a Broward Sheriff's Office helicopter took off from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport and used its aerial vantage point to direct firefighting crews to the crash site.
Crews from Fort Lauderdale, Oakland Park, and the Broward Sheriff's Office Fire-Rescue used foam to battle the blaze.
''It's still a strong fire,'' said BSO Fire-Rescue Capt. David Erdman about thirty minutes after the plane crashed. ``Fuel is likely what's causing it to continue burning.''
Richard Founds was standing outside his apartment smoking a cigarette when he heard the crash, turned around, and saw the downed plane. He watched a man, whom he assumed to be the pilot, scramble out a side window.
''I started running,'' he said. ``Hell yeah, I ran.''
Dianne Cuseo was visiting her mother, who lives two houses from where the plane came down. ''You heard a big, giant boom,'' she said. ``I ran out and saw the smoke and fire. One after the other, the tankers kaboomed, they exploded.''
Within minutes of the crash, hundreds of onlookers had gathered, including kids in bathing suits and neighbors angling for shots from behind the police tape with video cameras, still cameras and camera phones.
They marveled at how the pilot managed to avoid homes, bringing the plane to rest smack in the middle of Northeast 56th Avenue, one wing resting in a driveway near an engine.
Robert Chruszczyk was on his way home from his job as an IT specialist with the Department of Homeland Security. He said the plane seemed to simply appear in the middle of the street in front of him.
``It was a ball of fire. I thought it was a tanker truck on fire.''
He grabbed the fire extinguisher in his car, ran up as close as could get, and began helping police cordon off the area.
Sheriff Ken Jenne arrived shortly before 5 p.m.
Firefighters blanketed the crash site with foam and briefly had the fire under control. The wind kicked up though, and blew the flames back to life, sending up huge bursts of fireballs and billowing black smoke, forcing firefighters to resume pouring on foam.
Dale McKendry, a former small-airplane pilot who lives in the area, said he recognized the plane as one that regularly takes off from Executive Airport. He said it often made a strained engine noise that he believed indicated it was too heavy.
''Sooner or later this pilot was going to whack my house,'' McKendry said.