Small plane carrying hurricane relief supplies for Jamaica crashes in Florida neighborhood

A small turboprop plane bound for Jamaica on a hurricane relief mission crashed into a pond in a residential area of the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs on Monday morning minutes after takeoff personnel stated A fire official communicated The Associated Press no casualties were located during rescue efforts and they noted the search had become a recovery effort It wasn t right now known how plenty of persons were aboard the aircraft Broward County where the plane took off from and where the crash occurred is home to a vibrant Caribbean American district that sprang into action to collect relief supplies following Hurricane Melissa A fierce Category hurricane Melissa slammed into Jamaica late last month leaving a path of destruction Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department Deputy Chief Mike Moser noted crews responded within minutes of a call reporting the crash No homes were damaged but he mentioned rescue workers did spot certain debris near a neighborhood retention pond There was no actual plane to be seen Moser explained They followed the debris trail to the water We had divers that entered the water and tried to search for any casualties and didn t find any Moser noted rescue efforts concluded without finding any casualties He commented police would take over recovery efforts and federal aviation executives would investigate the cause of the crash Coral Springs police didn t instantly respond to calls and emails from AP The small Beechcraft King Air plane took off from the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at approximately 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 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 Source