WEST PALM BEACH — An NTSB investigator is expected in West Palm Beach at 9 a.m. to begin the long process of reviewing the fiery crash of a twin-engine plane last night at Palm Beach International Airport that killed three and left one badly hurt – the first fatal incident at PBIA in more than a decade.
The Piper PA-44 Seminole had arrived from the Bahamas and was scheduled to depart for Melbourne, flight records show. But just after taking off from runway 10 at about 6 p.m., the plane smashed into the tarmac and caught fire, according to emergency workers and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The plane carried two students and a flight instructor from the Florida Institute of Technology’s aviation school in Melbourne and another passenger who were on a routine flight training exercise, the school’s spokesman Wes Sumner confirmed.
The flight is part of the school’s international flight curriculum, and was coming from the Bahamas to PBIA to clear customs, Dean of the College of Aeronautics Winston Scott told reporters at a conference in Melbourne late last night.
