At Least 19 Killed In Plane Crash Off Miami Beach

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- A seaplane carrying 20 people crashed into the water off Miami Beach Monday afternoon, killing 19 people, authorities said. The other person has not been found.

Nineteen bodies were recovered after the Chalk's Ocean Airways propeller plane crashed around 2:30 p.m. after takeoff en route to Bimini in the Bahamas, Coast Guard officials said. Two crew were aboard along with 18 passengers, including three infants.
Sandy Rodriguez, 14, said he saw the plane flying low with white smoke trailing from it and flames coming from the bottom. The right wing then fell off as the plane went down behind a condominium tower on Biscayne Bay in Miami Beach, he said.

"It exploded in the air and one of the wings flew out of there. The other part of the plane was on fire and it just went straight down," said Maurice D'Giovianni, 42, a surfer who was in the water at the time.

Warr also saw the crash from the Coast Guard office on Government Cut.

"Everything looked normal, I saw the aircraft take off like it does every other times. I didn't think anything of it when I saw the black smoke from the pier, until I then heard the Coast Guard alarms go off," he said.

The twin-engine Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallard was headed to Bimini and was operating under visual flight rules, said Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board planned to investigate.

Footage from Chopper 6 showed a debris field in Government Cut, the channel that cargo and cruise ships take past South Beach into the Port of Miami, which was closed because of the crash. Three cruise ships were stuck in the port.

Coast Guard officials and emergency workers wearing protective suits hauled bodies up from rescue boats. Law enforcement speedboats, divers and helicopters were in the area doing searches. They were joined by others in private boats, on personal watercraft and on surfboards.

NBC 6's Amara Sohn spoke with a woman who said she had family on board the plane.

"The flight was going to Bimini," she said. "The only thing that we know was that something happened after takeoff. My father-in-law and my nephew were on that plane."