People in Florida neighborhood stop dinner, grab tools to rescue 4 people in plane crash

Residents in a Miami suburb used an ax, fire extinguisher and garden hose to rescue four people from a small plane that crashed into a tree in yet another mishap near a busy South Florida airport.

“It was nothing short of heroic,” Angelo Castillo, the mayor of Pembroke Pines in Broward County, said Tuesday.

But Castillo is frustrated. He said there have been more than 30 crashes in the past five years on or around North Perry Airport, which serves small planes, though the airport disputes that figure. A local street is named for 4-year-old Taylor Bishop, one of three people who died when a plane crashed into an SUV in 2021.

“We need better assurances that these planes are not going to keep falling out of the sky,” Castillo said. “The airport was a dairy farm before World War II. Now it’s the busiest general aviation airport in Florida. But within a five-mile radius, there are approximately half a million people.”

A pilot and three passengers were approaching the airport in a Cessna T337G when the aircraft crashed into a tree in the Pines Village neighborhood around 8 p.m. Sunday, authorities said.

“Residents put their dinner forks down to get out there,” Castillo said. “Some had garden hoses to put the fire out. There were cuts and bruises, but all four survived.”

Giovanna Hanley said the plane crashed near her mother’s house where she was staying.

“Within seconds, my hero Father in Law was breaking glass and pulling out the injured. … This is personal. This is angering. This is unacceptable,” Hanley said on Facebook, referring to plane crashes.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause of the crash, said Paris Tyburski, a spokesperson at the Broward County Aviation Department.

Tyburski, citing records, said there were 13 accidents from 2020 through 2024 that resulted in substantial damage, serious injury or death and 20 incidents in a lesser category that could have affected the safety of aircraft operation.

The aviation department is “responsible for the maintenance and safety of the airport facility,” Tyburski said. “The aircraft owner/operator is responsible for the maintenance of the aircraft.”

Castillo, meanwhile, wants an independent investigation of local air safety.

“People are up in arms, and I can’t blame them,” he said.