PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – A Miramar police officer was flying the small plane that crashed Thursday in Broward County, multiple sources tell Local 10 News.
In addition to the officer, a father and his two children were onboard and injured in the crash.
Authorities have not released the names of the four people injured.
The plane was still at the location of the crash near the intersection of Jodi Lane and Pembroke Road as an investigation continued Friday morning.
A group of boys was playing football at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday when they saw the plane approaching. They took off running and jumped a fence.
“When I looked up to actually see, it was an actual plane coming down, so we immediately jumped the fence and it was the scariest thing in my life,” Kaleb Campbell said.
Residents of Pembroke Pines’ Honeywoods community reported hearing an explosion.
Maria Njoku, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the single-engine SOCATA TB10 Tobago had departed North Perry Airport before crashing about a mile away.
Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue personnel rushed to the scene of the fiery crash. All of the injured were aboard the plane.
A helicopter took one of the injured to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.
Fire Rescue took the others injured to Memorial Regional Hospital.
Njoku said the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash, with the NTSB taking the lead in the investigation.
This crash adds to a list of planes that went down after taking off from North Perry Airport this year.
Just two weeks ago, a small plane landed on its roof on South Airport Road in Pembroke Pines. The plane was reporting engine problems shortly before takeoff. The two people onboard survived.
A week before that crash, one person died after another small plane went down at North Perry Airport. A spokesperson said the pilot reported engine trouble before crashing into the field.
And back in May, a student pilot was killed in a plane crash. Mark Daniel Scott, 25, and his instructor had just left North Perry Airport. They started having mechanical issues and tried to land when they clipped some power lines and crashed on Pembroke Road, near Hiatus Road in Miramar.
Local 10 News’ Amanda Batchelor and Andrea Torres contributed to this report.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated the relationship between the two children and two adults injured in the crash. The childrens’ father was onboard and also injured in the crash, as was a Miramar police officer piloting the plane.