Overview
- A Piper PA30 twin‑engine plane ditched about two miles east of Boca Raton Airport on Saturday morning and the lone female pilot was rescued uninjured and taken to a hospital as a precaution.
- Rescue crews from Boca Raton Ocean Rescue, the Boca Raton Police Marine Unit and Boca Raton Fire Rescue removed the pilot from the water and kept the area near 250 S. Ocean Blvd. closed to the public while operations continued.
- Witnesses at nearby South Beach Park and waterfront residences filmed and photographed the crash, reporting the plane appeared intact at first and that only the tail remained visible hours later before the aircraft was towed.
- The FAA announced it will assume investigative oversight and federal and local agencies remained on scene with the U.S. Coast Guard supporting recovery and scene management.
- The Piper PA30 is a small twin made by Piper Aircraft in the 1960s and 1970s and typically seats four to six people, a detail investigators will review along with the flight’s origin from Page Field in Fort Myers and its intended destination of South Bimini.