A small turboprop plane bound for Jamaica on a hurricane relief mission crashed into a pond in a residential neighborhood in Coral Springs on Monday morning, minutes after takeoff from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, authorities said.
In an update at 4 p.m., police announced that two people had died in the incident, although it has not been confirmed if they had been on the plane or on the ground.
It wasn't immediately known how many persons were aboard. Aerial TV footage from local media outlets showed a broken fence in the backyard of one home bordering the pond near where the plane went down.
Broward County's vibrant Caribbean American community sprung into action to collect relief supplies after Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 hurricane, slammed into Jamaica late last month, leaving a path of destruction.
READ MORE: 'The damage is shocking': Jamaicans in Lauderhill respond — and agonize — after Melissa
City of Coral Springs officials warned there may be a "strong odor of fuel in the air" on Monday evening and recommended residents in the area "avoid being outdoors and keep doors closed for the remainder of the night."
Speaking earlier in the day, Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department Deputy Chief Mike Moser said crews had responded within minutes of a call reporting the crash. No homes had been damaged, but he said rescue workers had spotted some debris near a neighborhood retention pond.
"There was no actual plane to be seen," Moser said. "They followed the debris trail to the water. We had divers that entered the water and tried to search for any victims and didn't find any."
Moser said at that time rescue efforts had concluded without finding any victims. He said police would take over recovery efforts, and federal aviation officials would investigate the cause of the crash.
In a statement at 4 p.m., City officials added that the roads in the Windsor Bay community remained closed until further notice as police worked the scene.
"There will be a significant police presence in the area of Windsor Bay throughout the remainder of the day and tomorrow as investigators work to collect evidence," the statement added.
The small Beechcraft King Air plane took off from the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at approximately 10:14 a.m., according to a spokesperson for the City of Fort Lauderdale, which owns and operates the airport. The crash occurred soon after takeoff, with Coral Springs police officers and firemen responding at 10:19 am, just five minutes later.
According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the registered owner of the plane is listed as International Air Services, a company that markets itself as specializing in providing trust agreements to non-U.S. citizens that enable them to register their aircrafts with the FAA. A person who answered the company's phone Monday afternoon declined to answer questions from a reporter, stating "no comment" and ending the phone call.
Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Oct. 28, tied for the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane in history. The storm also caused devastation in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and prompted relief organizations to mobilize.
Local government officials in Jamaica said in the days after the storm that Melissa had ripped the roofs off 120,000 structures, affecting some 90,000 families in the island's especially hard-hit western region. A week after Melissa's landfall in Jamaica, more than 2,000 people were still reported to be in shelters.
Additional reporting by WLRN News staff.
