Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived early Wednesday at the scene where a small plane went down in a mobile home community near Lake Worth Road and Mar Mak Drive.
The crash at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday destroyed at least one mobile home, damaged another and resulted in “an unknown number of victims,” Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Capt. Albert Borroto said.
Domingo Galacias believes his daughter is among the victims.
Galicias said his daughter Banny had stayed home from classes at Palm Beach State College on Tuesday because she was tired and not feeling well.
He stepped outside and took a seat leaving his daughter in her room to sleep. Overhead he heard the sputter of a plane and then a massive boom.
“Everything moved,” he said. “Boom. Just boom.”
He ran into the house and screamed out for his daughter to escape, but he heard nothing. The flames and smoke became too much, he said, and he had to retreat.
On Wednesday, he sat on a folding chair across the street, facing his house. Friends and family gathered with him, bringing him food to eat, pats on the back.
But he was unmoved. He sat there sitting, watching his small white trailer home — The front in tact as if nothing unusual has occurred the day before, the back still smoldering from the plane that dropped out of the sky.
“My heart is broken,” he said.
Dan Boggs, air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said there were two fatalities — the pilot of the plane and one person on the ground.
He did not release their identities.
He said the plane was a Cherokee 180 that left Orlando headed to the Palm Beach County Park Airport near Lantana, just south of the crash site. When the plane crashed it was destroyed, so investigators have been unable to get the plane’s identifying tail number.
Investigators expect to stay until at least Thursday investigating the crash.
Boggs said he does not think the pilot radioed for help before crashing.
The investigation was turned over to the FAA late Tuesday. The American Red Cross was called to help two displaced families.
Crews arrived about 5:30 p.m. after several reports of a low-flying aircraft in the area and a “column of smoke” coming from the area near Lake Worth Road not far from Congress Avenue, Borroto said.
They extinguished the flames and preserved the scene for Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board investigators, Borroto said. When fire rescue officials arrived, one mobile home was completely ablaze and another was partially on fire, he said.
Arthur Grimes, of Lake Worth, said he saw a plane sputter, rock back from side to side and then plummet down into the mobile home park.
“All of a sudden it just went down” and there was a huge explosion, Grimes said.
Sean Reilly said he was outside smoking a cigarette when he saw a small plane crash.
“Honestly, I just said a bunch of curse words and called 911,” Reilly said.
Tyrone Caswell, an employee of the Off Lease Only car dealership across the street from the crash, said he could see a huge plume of smoke.
Employees there reviewed security footage from outside the building and saw the plane flip onto its side before it disappeared into the trees.
“When I looked back at the video it was like, ‘Whoa,'” he said. “[I was] thinking, ‘How close was it to us?'”
The surrounding roads and mobile homes nearby were closed and evacuated at the time, Borroto said. Evacuated residents were able to return to their homes about two hours later.
Staff writer Adam Sacasa contributed to this report.
rpiccardo@tribpub.com, 954-356-4544 or Twitter: @rebecapiccardo
