An off-duty police detective described the moments he jumped into action after he saw a Cessna plane come crashing down into a tree in a Pembroke Pines neighborhood.
Pembroke Pines Police said the plane came crashing down on the 6800 block of Southwest 14th Street, Sunday evening, as it tried to land at North Perry Airport.
Scott Hanley, a detective for the Boca Raton Police Department, said he was preparing for the worst as he rushed toward the downed aircraft.
“When I went over, you know, I was kind of expecting the worst, just being in this field and this business and seeing the way the plane was,” said Hanley.
The detective was off-duty that day and had been visiting family in the area when the plane crashed.
He and other residents ran over to help, breaking through the plane’s window to pull the pilot out.
“He hands me the ax; I just took it a few times, hit the window, window shatters on the top, and we were able to get the gentleman out,” said Hanley. “He was, kind of, standing in an upright position with his back, kind of, against the window, hitting it and screaming frantically, ‘Get us out of here, get us of here.’”
The rest of the pilot’s family, his wife and two children, were still trapped inside the plane.
“And I could see there was a female in the front, and she was kind of down on the ground, lower,” said Hanley.
Hanley and the other good Samaritans managed to get her out, leaving the two girls left inside to rescue.
“We kind of moved some stuff, and there were the two younger females in the back, so we’re, luckily, able to, you know, get them out,” said Hanley.
All four of them were taken to a local hospital to be treated for minor injuries. They’re all expected to be OK.
“Any time that, as we said, that four people can walk from a crash like that, I think is amazing,” said Hanley.
The family was returning from the Turks and Caicos when, for some reason, the small Cessna crash landed in the nearby neighborhood.
Security footage provided by Pembroke Pines Mayor Angelo Castillo showed the aircraft slamming through the top of a tree in front of a home.
“Sure enough, it was there, it was smoking, you know, there was fire,” said Hanley.
Hanley credited the selflessness displayed by everyone who helped the trapped family.
“The fact that you have a community of people who, without hesitation, came out and were putting their lives at risk and in danger for people they never met before,” said Hanley.
Residents in the area said these crashes are far too common.
Back in 2021, a plane crashed into a car near Southwest 72nd Avenue and 13th Street, killing both people on the aircraft and a 4-year-old boy who was in the back seat of the car.
Megan Bishop, the boy’s mother, worries something like that will happen again until something changes.
“My whole body just shuts down, it’s crazy. All I did was just cry because I don’t want any parent to experience what I went through, but unless there’s change, another parent will go through what I went through,” said Bishop.
The cause for this plane crash remains under investigation.