A boy traveling in an SUV with his mother died when a small plane struggling to return to a South Florida airport crashed into them on a residential street, officials said.
Two people died on the plane in the accident on Monday afternoon, which was recorded by a neighbor’s security camera. The boy’s mother was injured, but officials said she was discharged from hospital on Monday, said Pembroke Pines fire chief Marcel Rodriguez.
The Beechcraft Bonanza plane had just taken off from North Perry airport in Pembroke Pines and was returning shortly before 3 pm, the fire chief said. He said there may have been mechanical problems.
“The car literally looks like it is half full,” neighbor Salah Elshaer, who called 911, told WSVN.
“We heard it like a bomb, like a tremendous noise, and we went out and everything was on fire,” another neighbor, Annabel Fernandez, told the TV station.
The boy’s mother managed to get out of the vehicle and was trying to free her son. The firefighters finally released the trapped child and they were taken to the hospital, where the boy died.
The camera on a neighbor’s door recorded the accident, showing the plane nose-diving in the SUV as the woman drove down a street. The plane’s wreckage then precipitates along the sidewalk, leaving a line of flame in its wake. The plane also broke a power line when it crashed, officials said.
The names of the victims were not disclosed. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Council were investigating the accident.