Residents of Pines Village rushed to help after a small plane crashed in their Pembroke Pines neighborhood on Sunday evening.
A Cessna Skymaster, with four people onboard, came down in the area of SW 14 Street and SW 68 Boulevard, about a mile west of North Perry Airport, just after 8 p.m.
According to FlightAware, the flight originated in the Dominican Republic. It then went to the Turks and Caicos before coming to South Florida.
Neighbors race to help
Robert Cox said they were eating dinner when they heard the plane that sounded really low.
“When we heard the impact we went outside and we saw that the plane had hit a tree. It took the tree out. We surmised that the guy ran out of fuel because his plane was sputtering as it was coming down. He was probably using the street as a landing strip, but then he ran into this big oak tree,” he said.
Cox said there were flames coming from the plane when his neighbors jumped into action.
“Everybody scrambled to help them, you know, which was great. They put the fire out before the fire department even got here, but they responded very quickly,” he said.
“I still believe he was running out of fuel because if he wasn’t there would have been a bigger fire,” he added.
Giovanna Hanley said she heard the crash and thought the “bang” was from a motorcycle muffler.
“When we walked outside, my mom and I saw the plane and my father-in-law, he’s a first responder, he was the first one out here, ran over our. Our neighbors were doing all the heroic saving, it was amazing,” she said.
She said one neighbor grabbed an axe, another got a fire extinguisher and someone else grabbed a hose.
“He came with an axe, breaking the windows. So we took the father out first, the two daughters peeked their heads out of the seat and we had to break the bottom half of the cockpit because the mom was on the bottom, trapped in. The neighbor from across the street had a fire extinguisher trying to put the fire out. My neighbor where the plane actually crashed, he had a water hose and was hosing the plane down,” neighbor Eddy Crispin said.
“My father-in-law started recovering and giving care to the individuals on the plane, (I’m) happy they are all safe,” Hanley said.
Pembroke Pines police said the family suffered minor injuries and were taken to Memorial Regional Hospital.
Not the first time this has happened
Hanley said this is not the first time something like this has happened in their neighborhood.
“I want to reference and bring continued awareness to the fact that this continues to happen. It’s not the first time, Taylor Bishop, we now have Taylor Bishop Avenue.
Four-year-old Taylor Bishop was riding in the backseat of his mother’s car when a plane crashed into it on March 15, 2021. Miraculously, she survived but he lost his life. A section of SW 72 Avenue near 13 Street was renamed in his honor.
Hanley said while they renamed the street, there have been no new safety measures and the North Perry Airport remains open.
“With how many times this is happening, it’s very scary,” she said. “My babies had just gotten home a few minutes prior to this, going down the very street. So think about, had that been another Taylor Bishop situation with my two small babies, that would have been very unfortunate and very scary.”
Pembroke Pines mayor wants action
Pembroke Pines Mayor Angelo Castillo said something needs to be done.
“These residents are constantly fearing that in the middle of the night some plane is going to knock into their homes or create a problem on the main road here named after Taylor Bishop,” he said.
Castillo said he’s calling on the county to step up.
“Over the last five years, we’ve had over 35 crashes here. Time has run out on our patience,” he said. “This community wants to feel safe, Broward County, and I’m calling on the Broward Commission to conduct a full investigation of safety at this airport.”
