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FYI..
Sadly FYI...
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/596924.html
PEMBROKE PINES
Crash at Pembroke Pines airport kills pilot
Posted on Tue, Jul. 08, 2008reprint print email
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BY DIANA MOSKOVITZ AND GREG LINCH
dmoskovitz@MiamiHerald.com
JOE RIMKUS JR. / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
The crash ripped off the plane's front propeller, and flames gutted the
plane's midsection.
Video | Plane bursts in flames at Pembroke Pines airport
A lone pilot was killed Monday after his single-engine plane crashed just
moments after taking off from North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines,
authorities said.
The plane, a Lancair IV-P, is registered to Douglas A. Pohl, 57, of Jupiter,
according to Federal Aviation Administration records. It's an experimental
plane -- also known as amateur built -- which is common among airplane
enthusiasts who build their own aircraft, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen
said.
Late Monday, authorities didn't say if Pohl was the pilot, only saying the
pilot was a male. A woman at the family's home on Monday said that Pohl's
wife had left for the crash site.
The crash happened shortly before 6 p.m. Authorities said that upon takeoff,
the plane quickly veered off and then did a nose dive into the ground near
the tennis courts at Paul J. Maxwell Park, 1200 SW 72nd Ave., only a short
distance from the airport, which is between Pines Boulevard and Pembroke
Road.
The plane shattered on impact. Several people on nearby paddleball courts
witnessed the crash, said Sgt. Bryan Davis with Pembroke Pines police.
Nobody was on the tennis courts, Davis said.
When firefighters arrived, the small aircraft was engulfed in flames. The
crash ripped off the plane's front propeller, and flames gutted much of the
plane.
The pilot could not be saved, said Assistant Fire Marshal Shawn Hallich, a
spokesman for Pembroke Pines Fire-Rescue. No one on the ground was hurt.
Kathleen Mogan lives about a block away from the crash. She was driving
along University Drive when she saw what looked like a 30-foot-tall
fireball.
''It was boom, boom, boom,'' Mogan said of the crash.
Moments later, about three or four police cruisers raced by her, she said.
Mogan quickly turned her car around to see what had happened.
Plenty of onlookers joined her, several peering through a line of hedges on
the airfield's east side.
Investigators with the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will
review the crash.
The crash comes about eight months after a banner plane crashed, also at
North Perry. On Nov. 10, a single-engine banner plane registered to Aerial
Banners of Weston crashed at the airport, sending the Piper Pawnee's pilot
to the hospital.
In 2004, Jim Goggin, 54, of Pompano Beach died after the 1957 Rowdan T1 he
was piloting plunged to the ground after he took off from North Perry.
And in 2002, Andrew Holub, 59, of Kendall, died when the Cruiser TR-4
experimental four-seater aircraft he was piloting crashed into a Pembroke
Pines neighborhood while heading for North Perry.
The plane in Monday's crash has been involved in one previous accident, in
which nobody was hurt, on July 23, 2001, according to NTSB records.
A paper towel partially blocking the air intake system, left behind after a
maintenance inspection, probably caused the accident, the NTSB report said.
On a post to a Lancair builders mail list from August 2001, Pohl wrote about
that accident ''in hopes of promoting safety,'' and reminding all pilots to
be prepared for when malfunctions happen, the post said.
Miami Herald staff writer Sergio R. Bustos contributed to this report.
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