911 callers report plane dropping from the sky

MIRAMAR — It was hard to miss.

After a two-seater, single-engine Cessna Skyhawk crashed at Palm Avenue and Miramar Parkway on Monday night, four 911 callers tried to describe to dispatchers the hectic scene in front of them near the River Run shopping plaza at 9933 Miramar Parkway.

The first caller was in disbelief, afraid he was nearly hit by the crashing aircraft.

“I don’t think they made it, bro,” he said. “They need ambulances right now, like, fast.”

He told the dispatcher he could see two people alive in the crumpled aircraft.

A backpack found in the plane held identification for one of the two women inside, Gopika Sreekumar, 23. A passport from the Republic of India identified the second woman, Ravi Urmila, 36, according to Miramar Police.

Authorities said Sreekumar and Urmila were both severely injured after the small plane crashed into the sidewalk, hitting the tops of palm trees on its unexpected descent. They were both hospitalized with serious injuries Monday at Memorial Regional Hospital. It is not immediately clear what their conditions were Thursday.

While driving on Palm Avenue, a second caller told dispatchers she saw the plane drop from the sky and could see the women moving inside. A third caller from a store in the plaza heard the crash before he saw it.

“I was sitting down,” he said. “I heard ‘Boom!’ I looked, I saw a plane crash [and thought] this is crazy.”

The fourth caller and others in the car with her said it seemed like the plane hadn’t crashed long ago, the smell of it lingering in the air, its left wing damaged and the nose and belly dismantled.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash.