Two dead after small plane crashes
Aircraft hits public storage facility
PEMBROKE PARK — A small plane crashed into a public storage facility in Pembroke Park on Friday morning, killing two people.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the crash of the twin-engine Aero Commander. The Broward Sheriff ’s Office said two people were on board on the plane. .
The plane — registered to Miami Lakes-based Conquest Air Inc. — crashed about 9:20 a.m. into the upper floors of the sixstory public storage facility and landed in the parking lot at 1781 S.
Park Road, just south of Pembroke Road and west of Interstate 95.
It was bound for Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport from Pompano Beach Airpark when it fell from the sky.
One witness in the neighboring Pembroke Park Self Storage area said he heard a whining sound, looked up, saw the plane flying low, heard the engine stall out, and then a loud bang as the plane hit the building and fell to the ground.
The crash scene is just south of the vast Orangebrook Golf and Country Club course.
Steven J. Grey is a veteran traffic reporter who had just landed at North Perry Airport after covering the Friday morning rush hour for local television stations.
“I had just gotten out of the [helicopter] and my pilot hears on the aircraft radio [cursing] and ’Oh no’ and then the tower at
North Perry called out the N-number of the aircraft and no response,” Grey said. “And then North Perry declared an emergency.”
Two bodies were covered by yellow tarps and firefighters surrounded the area blocking off South Park Road.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office confirmed, at a midday news conference, there were two dead and no other passengers aboard the aircraft.
“They located two bodies which have been confirmed deceased,” said Sgt. Don Prichard.
The identities of the persons on board the plane are pending confirmation from the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office, he said.
One of the victims was Joaquin Ricalde Magaña, according to WPLG-Ch. 10.
Magaña’s niece, a politician in Mexico, tweeted a photo with Joaquin on the far right in a black shirt, writing in Spanish that “Life is short and a privilege and if you don’t remember that, it will remind you. Have a good trip uncle Huacho, this was a flight with no return.”
Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue and Hollywood Fire Rescue were at the crash scene.
The National Transportation Safety Board will be among those agencies investigating the crash.
Conquest Air is a cargo airline providing daily service to Nassau, Bahamas, and service as needed to Freeport, Abaco, and the Caribbean, according to the company website. Attempts to contact the company by phone were unsuccessful.