Plane on Jamaica relief mission crashes in Florida, killing two

A small Beechcraft King Air turboprop plane on a hurricane relief mission to Jamaica crashed into a pond in a gated neighbourhood of Coral Springs, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, killing two people shortly after takeoff and narrowly missing nearby homes, authorities confirmed to foreign media.

The Coral Springs Police Department announced the fatalities on the afternoon of November 10 but did not release further information about the victims.

Emergency crews arrived within minutes of the crash, which was reported shortly after 10:19 a.m., five minutes after the plane departed from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at 10:14 a.m.

Deputy Fire Chief Mike Moser said initial rescue efforts quickly turned into a recovery operation after no survivors were found. He confirmed that no homes were damaged, though debris was discovered near the pond, and a fence behind one home was broken. Authorities urged residents to expect a heavy police presence as the investigation continues.

The 1976-model aircraft, according to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records, was registered to International Air Services — a company that provides trust agreements allowing non-US citizens to register aircraft with the FAA. A company representative reached by phone declined to comment.

Flight-tracking data from FlightAware showed the plane had completed four trips to and from Jamaica over the past week, flying between George Town in the Cayman Islands, Montego Bay, Negril, and Fort Lauderdale. It remains unclear who coordinated the missions.

Federal aviation officials are now leading the crash investigation.

The relief flight followed the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm that struck Jamaica on October 28. The hurricane, tied for the strongest Atlantic landfall on record, also battered Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, spurring widespread relief efforts.

In Jamaica, government officials reported that Melissa tore the roofs off 120,000 buildings, impacting about 90,000 families, particularly in the island’s western regions. More than 2,000 people remained in shelters a week after landfall.

By Tamilla Hasanova