PEMBROKE PINES, FLA. (WSVN) - A pair of small plane crashes has disrupted South Florida aviation and is raising questions about safety.
Early Saturday morning, authorities responded to Miami Homestead General Aviation Airport after a small plane had flipped over following a hard landing.
Aboard the airplane were two men, one of them being a student pilot. Both thankfully survived and suffered only minor injuries.
But late Friday morning, another plane, a Cessna C172P, plummeted down in Pembroke Pines just after take off from North Perry Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Pembroke Pines Mayor Angelo Castillo filled in the details about the crash.
“Shortly after takeoff, it experienced engine failure. Had to make a turn, probably trying to go back to the airport. Didn’t have the altitude. Hit a tree, went into a ditch here, and flipped over,” he said.
The crash occurred just feet from the South Florida State Hospital off East Cypress Drive.
“This is a routine thing in Pembroke Pines. It has become an ongoing problem and a menace in the City of Pembroke Pines,” said Castillo.
Officials with the Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue said two women were on board the plane. One of them was a student pilot.
Police said the two were conscious and breathing when rescued. Paramedics rushed them both to a nearby hospital.
“Thankfully, apparently there was a good Samaritan who is not here anymore but who helped those individuals get out of the plane after he saw it crash,” said Castillo.
But it isn’t the first time a plane has crashed in Pembroke Pines recently. According to the Broward County Aviation Department, 13 crashes and 20 incidents have taken place at North Perry between 2020 and 2024.
This includes the 2021 death of 4-year-old Taylor Bishop, killed in his mom’s car when it was hit by a plane trying to land at North Perry. A year later, in 2022, a plane crashed into a house shortly after takeoff. In 2025, a plane slammed into a tree blocks away from the runway.
Castillo believes North Perry, one of the state’s busiest general aviation airports, has become incompatible with a densely populated city.
“The facility has become incompatible with the rest of the city,” the mayor said on Friday.
The plane in Pembroke Pines has since been towed away.
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