MIRAMAR, FLA. (WSVN) - The 25-year-old student pilot who died in a plane crash in Miramar was a married man and had come to the U.S. from Jamaica to finish his flight training.
A photograph captures Mark Scott, the deceased pilot, and his wife, Rochelle, embracing with a Jamaican flag over their heads. Those who knew the couple said they were both pilots, and they said the two were passionate about their craft.
Scott was an experienced student at Wayman Aviation Academy.
“We had a training aircraft coming in from a normal training flight,” Eddie Luy, the flight school’s vice president, said. “It was an advanced student, senior student, and an experienced instructor.”
He and his instructor, identified as Andres Bastides, took off from North Perry Airport Tuesday morning for a routine training flight.
“The flight training is all about emergency operations,” Luy said. “It’s about what happens in case of this, in case of that, and they seem to have followed those procedures just fine, but the timing was not right for them.”
Scott and Bastides encountered some type of mechanical problem and made calls for help.
A dashcam video captured the plane flying low. Its tail clipped some power lines before making a crash landing on Pembroke Road.
“All of the sudden, saw just a wall of fire and black smoke,” a witness said.
The plane caught fire, and Scott succumbed to his injuries. Bastides was rushed to the hospital and remains in serious condition.
“We instantly heard all the sirens, heard the helicopters above. They came instantly,” a second witness said.
“We pray for the families,” Luy said. “I think they did as well as they could in the situation they were in.”
The couple, who are Jamaican natives, came to the U.S. to finish their flight school training.
It remains unclear where Scott’s final resting place will be. Rochelle has remained in the U.S. since the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board continues its investigation into the crash.
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