PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – Investigators removed the body of a pilot and the wreckage left behind after his plane crashed shortly after taking off from North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigators were at the airport again Tuesday, trying to determine exactly what caused the fatal plunge.
Local 10 news cameras captured the medical examiner removing the pilot’s body, the only victim aboard the small plane, during the early morning hours Tuesday.
The mangled plane and surrounding debris were removed from the field it crashed into later the day.
North Perry Airport authorities said the pilot took off around 3:30 p.m. Monday and shortly after, something went wrong.
“I got a rough running engine, I need to come back to the airport,” the pilot can be heard saying over the radio, moments before the crash.
He communicated to the tower that he was turning around and attempting to land.
The plane plunged into the airport’s field, not far from the runway that the pilot was trying to safely land on.
The plane’s tail number shows the aircraft is registered as a 2007 Long Glenn E Legacy, fixed wing, single engine, two-seater plane.
Pilots in the area are trying to make sense of this fatal flight.
The NTSB and the FAA remained on the ground throughout the day Tuesday, trying to figure out what factors aside from a bad engine may have contributed to the tragedy.