Pilot killed when plane crashes into Fort Lauderdale condo. Residents were evacuated.
Update: The pilot was identified on Saturday as Derek Damion Morgan, 28, said Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Tracy Figone.
A banner plane — a common sight along Fort Lauderdale Beach — smashed into an occupied condo building Friday, killing the pilot and punching a dishwasher out of the condo it crashed into. No one else was injured.
The bright yellow plane’s banner apparently got caught on a nearby building, witnesses told the Sun-Sentinel, sending it hurtling into an occupied condominium building on North Ocean Boulevard just before noon. The tiny plane hit Berkley South, a 19-story building, between the 16th and 17th floors, said Fort Lauderdale Fire Chief Stephen Gollan.
The impact knocked the dishwasher out of the wall of one resident’s condo, leaving a gaping hole in the kitchen, and destroyed parts of two other homes. The plane then fell to the second floor pool deck, where about 20 construction workers were at work renovating the space.
No one other than the pilot — who was declared dead at the scene — was injured. All the people who live in the building, except residents of the three affected condos, were allowed to return to their homes less than four hours after the crash, Gollan said.
“At this time we do have one fatality that was on the aircraft,” he said. “The pilot.”
The pilot was identified on Saturday as Derek Damion Morgan, 28, said Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Tracy Figone. He received his commercial pilot certification in August 2018, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
Gollan said the first unit at the scene arrived at the high-rise and saw the ill-fated aircraft spilling fuel on the second-floor pool area, its wings snapped and fuselage twisted. No fire was reported, but crews worked to clean up spilled fuel.
The crash scene, across the street from the beach, snarled traffic and caused police to shut down a portion of State Road A1A.
The FAA said on Twitter that the plane — a Piper PA-25 — took off from North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines.
The phone number on the side of the crumpled plane — 800-FLY-7001 — belongs to Aerial Banners, a prolific banner flying company with more than a dozen Florida locations, including Fort Lauderdale. The company did not respond to requests for comment, but the owner told NBC6 the pilot had less than a month’s experience.
The company had its FAA waiver revoked in 2007 over a series of safety issues — including a hard landing, a plane running out of fuel and a crash. It was reinstated.
The National Transportation Safety Board will decide how to remove the plane from the building as part of its investigation into the crash.
This story was originally published March 1, 2019 at 12:28 PM.
