Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
PILOT KILLED IN PLANE CRASH
A small plane crashed into a backyard in a Boynton Beach neighborhood Friday, killing the pilot. The aircraft came to rest on a grassy strip of land between a canal and a swimming pool not far from the intersection of Miner Road and North Congress Avenue.
BOYNTON BEACH — Eddie Bean’s fishing line had been wet all of an hour when the angler looked up and saw a bright yellow plane roll in the sky. Thinking it was a stunt plane, he was briefly mesmerized — until the plane took a nose dive, crashing into a backyard in a Boynton Beach neighborhood.
The pilot died, police said. Nobody else was hurt.
The aircraft had just taken off Friday afternoon from Palm Beach County Park Airport in Lantana, said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen. At 1:16 p.m., it crashed in the Dos Lagos community, north of Boynton Beach Boulevard and west of Interstate 95.
The small plane came to rest on a grassy strip of land between a canal and a backyard swimming pool not too far from the intersection of Miner Road and North Congress Avenue.
Bean said he couldn’t believe what he had just seen. He called 911 and in no time, about 15 police officers came speeding down Miner, jumping out of the cars, hopping a fence and racing toward the wreckage.
Bean was crushed to learn the pilot died.
“My prayers go out,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve seen anything like this. My prayers go out to him and his family.”
The plane was a two-seater Grumman American AA1-Yankee Clipper. Brian Garner, one of the owners of Big Sky Aviation, had previously owned the plane. Because the new owner had not registered the plane in his name, he was called by authorities and told about the crash. He said the current owner was not piloting the plane.
The name of the pilot has not been released.
Edwin Cook had just woken up from a nap when he heard the jarring sound of the plane crashing in his neighbor’s yard.
“I didn’t know if it hit the house,” he said.
Cook said he raced outside but all the trees made it hard to see where the plane was. So he started through the yard to explore when police chased him away.
“They didn’t want anyone back there,” he said.