PEMBROKE PINES, FL - On July 13th, a 1976 Cessna T337G aircraft hit a tree, crashing into the ground in someone's front yard. Four bystanders, including off-duty Boca Raton Police officers, quickly rescued the pilot, his wife and their children — all of whom had no major injuries.
Now, recently released body-worn camera footage by Pembroke Pines Police shows a tree with a big chunk of it ripped out as a possible reason that this crash did not end in a tragedy, according to ABC.
"That house got so lucky," one officer said as she walked past the mangled plane in a tangle of tree limbs. "Wow." The officer said to another: "Wild, right? How lucky did that house get? How lucky is that house? Imagine that would've fallen on the house."
She went on to say that a day earlier she had been talking with another officer about the frequency of plane crashes, Police1 reported. "You know what's crazy, sarge? I was just telling her yesterday, this happens all the time, and today it happened," the officer said.
A different officer can be heard saying that the plane crashing into the tree could have been what slowed it down. "They probably would have hit the street or someone's house," one officer said. An incident report states that the pilot and his family were flying back from a trip to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands and stopped for fuel in Puerto Rico.
The pilot, 58-year-old Carlos Balza Cardenas, was flying the six-seat small plane, approaching North Perry Airport at about 8:00 p.m. when it crashed about a mile short of the airport.
Before trying to land, Cardenas told police "he had lowered his landing gear and went to add throttle but there was no thrust and the plane lost altitude and crashed." His wife, 54-year-old Fancly Maurette, and their 13-year-old and 16-year-old daughters were trapped inside the plane as a fire erupted in the engine compartment.
Using a sledgehammer to smash the plane's windows, four people on the ground freed the family from the plane. As the plane filled with smoke, they sprayed a hose and fire extinguisher. Among the four individuals were off-duty Boca Raton Police detective Scott Hanley, Eddy Crispin, Tarrance Sheffield, and Emanuel Llanguno.
Hanley is a 23-year veteran of the Boca Raton Police Department and he just happened to be dropping off his grandkids nearby, CBS12 reported. "I had my grandchildren for the day," Hanley said.
"We had just kind of arrived shortly before the incident, get them inside ... and as we were inside, you know, we hear this loud crash. A couple of ladies went to the door, and first thing they said was, 'Wow, there's a plan in the neighbor's yard.'"
On the body camera footage from one of the first officers to arrive on scene shows the four men helping Maurette, who was the last to be rescued, climb through the shattered glass of the plane's front windshield.
A woman who lived nearby hugged the younger teen and patter her on the back as she cried. "Just have a seat," the officer said. "She wanted a hug," the woman replied. "I was just gonna let her hold me."
"Are you related?" the officer asked. "No, I just live over here," she said. After everyone had been rescued, an officer said over radio that there weren't any major injuries. "I don't know how," he said to another officer at the scene.
A total of 41 planes have crashed at and around North Perry Airport within the last five years, according to a recent resolution from the city demanding a safety study in the wake of the July crash.
The FAA traffic control tower at the airport is the "busiest federal contract facility" in the country, and the airport's annual number of takeoffs and landings in 2023 and 2024 far outpaced levels not expected until 10 years in the future, the resolution said.
The airport has had 13 accidents involving property damage, injury or death, and another 20 involving mechanical failures between 2020 and 2024, according to the Broward County Aviation Department. The National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary investigation report on the recent Pembroke Pines crash is not yet available.
Now, recently released body-worn camera footage by Pembroke Pines Police shows a tree with a big chunk of it ripped out as a possible reason that this crash did not end in a tragedy, according to ABC.
"That house got so lucky," one officer said as she walked past the mangled plane in a tangle of tree limbs. "Wow." The officer said to another: "Wild, right? How lucky did that house get? How lucky is that house? Imagine that would've fallen on the house."
She went on to say that a day earlier she had been talking with another officer about the frequency of plane crashes, Police1 reported. "You know what's crazy, sarge? I was just telling her yesterday, this happens all the time, and today it happened," the officer said.
A different officer can be heard saying that the plane crashing into the tree could have been what slowed it down. "They probably would have hit the street or someone's house," one officer said. An incident report states that the pilot and his family were flying back from a trip to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands and stopped for fuel in Puerto Rico.
The pilot, 58-year-old Carlos Balza Cardenas, was flying the six-seat small plane, approaching North Perry Airport at about 8:00 p.m. when it crashed about a mile short of the airport.
Before trying to land, Cardenas told police "he had lowered his landing gear and went to add throttle but there was no thrust and the plane lost altitude and crashed." His wife, 54-year-old Fancly Maurette, and their 13-year-old and 16-year-old daughters were trapped inside the plane as a fire erupted in the engine compartment.
Using a sledgehammer to smash the plane's windows, four people on the ground freed the family from the plane. As the plane filled with smoke, they sprayed a hose and fire extinguisher. Among the four individuals were off-duty Boca Raton Police detective Scott Hanley, Eddy Crispin, Tarrance Sheffield, and Emanuel Llanguno.
Hanley is a 23-year veteran of the Boca Raton Police Department and he just happened to be dropping off his grandkids nearby, CBS12 reported. "I had my grandchildren for the day," Hanley said.
"We had just kind of arrived shortly before the incident, get them inside ... and as we were inside, you know, we hear this loud crash. A couple of ladies went to the door, and first thing they said was, 'Wow, there's a plan in the neighbor's yard.'"
On the body camera footage from one of the first officers to arrive on scene shows the four men helping Maurette, who was the last to be rescued, climb through the shattered glass of the plane's front windshield.
A woman who lived nearby hugged the younger teen and patter her on the back as she cried. "Just have a seat," the officer said. "She wanted a hug," the woman replied. "I was just gonna let her hold me."
"Are you related?" the officer asked. "No, I just live over here," she said. After everyone had been rescued, an officer said over radio that there weren't any major injuries. "I don't know how," he said to another officer at the scene.
A total of 41 planes have crashed at and around North Perry Airport within the last five years, according to a recent resolution from the city demanding a safety study in the wake of the July crash.
The FAA traffic control tower at the airport is the "busiest federal contract facility" in the country, and the airport's annual number of takeoffs and landings in 2023 and 2024 far outpaced levels not expected until 10 years in the future, the resolution said.
The airport has had 13 accidents involving property damage, injury or death, and another 20 involving mechanical failures between 2020 and 2024, according to the Broward County Aviation Department. The National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary investigation report on the recent Pembroke Pines crash is not yet available.
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