PEMBROKE PINES, FLA. (WSVN) - Pembroke Pines residents voiced their concerns to their local officials and a Broward County commissioner over safety issues at North Perry Airport.
Many of these residents who live near North Perry Airport appeared at the Broward College Library in Pembroke Pines on Wesnesday night to say the recent crashes, many of them close calls, have them living on edge, and they are anxious for something to be done.
“We’re tired of planes coming down, not only at the airport, but on our street — where we shop, where we bank — and in the last crash, it was at someone’s home,” said area resident Dennis Hinds.
Hinds lives just blocks from North Perry. He joined the dozens of others who said they’re anxiously awaiting that updated safety assessment that was requested by city officials earlier this month.
Hinds said it’s only a matter of time before a horrible thing may happen, so he hopes officials act quickly.
“If we lose one more life to a [plane] crash, it’s too much,” he said.
According to officials, there are about 850 flights that take off every day from North Perry Airport.
That high traffic has led to an increased frequency of crashes. According to the Broward County Aviation Department, 13 accidents and 20 incidents have taken place at the airport between 2020 and 2024.
Pembroke Pines Mayor Angelo Castillo said those numbers have him agreeing with the residents that something must be done.
“I’m constantly living, looking up, wondering if this is gonna be the day that one of these planes is going to fly into my house,” he said.
He said North Perry Airport, now one of the state’s busiest general aviation airports, could be incompatible with a densely populated city.
“That airport and our communities are incompatible. We can’t have planes falling this frequently out of the sky,” said Castillo.
The mayor added that he’s still waiting for the county and federal officials to begin working on investigating safety protocols and flight operations at the facility.
“The City of Pembroke Pines asked for three things. We asked for an air quality study, we asked for a safety study, and we asked for the re-institution of a community advisory board with teeth, so that people from this community can have a say and see what it is that’s going on at that airport,” said Castillo.
The town hall takes place after a plane crash that happened last month on a Pembroke Pines street.
Inside the plane was a family of four who landed just shy of the runway at North Perry Airport.
Neighbors quickly jumped into action to rescue the family trapped inside. The victims only suffered minor injuries.
About a month after the scary crash, the neighbors were honored during the commissioner’s meeting.
“Armed only with a sledgehammer and their courage, they broke the windows to ventilate the smoke and used their shirts to shield the victims from broken glass,” said Pembroke Pines Police Assistant Chief Tony Cerino.
“Forevermore, you will be remembered as a hero,” said Castillo.
In a statement, the Broward County Aviation Department said a screening of the airport’s safety protocols occurs annually and that the airport has received a perfect score with zero discrepancies in 25 years.
Representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration were invited to the town hall, but did not show up.
7News reached out to the FAA for a statement, but has yet to hear back.
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