Skyhawk, PA-44 Collide On Training Flights Near FLL

All four occupants of two light aircraft were killed in an apparent mid-air collision Saturday afternoon, about 20 miles west of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The planes were reported overdue Saturday evening, and Sunday morning the Broward County Sheriff's Office called in the US Coast Guard to assist in the search.

Hampered by early morning fog, a US Coast Guard helicopter dispatched from Miami spotted the wreckage of the planes just before 9 am Sunday morning in a marshy area about three miles southwest of Everglades Holiday Park.

The remote crash area was reachable only by airboat. Preserving the wreckage sites as a crime scene, the Sheriff's Office was keeping both air and boat traffic well away from the area, the Orlando Sun-Sentinel reported.

Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said, 'It's too soon to speculate what happened. There are no survivors.

"It's terrible, I'm sure family members were expecting these four people to return home safely," Coleman-Wright said. "It's unfortunate their adventure turned deadly."

One of the dead has been tentatively identified by a relative as Stuart Brown, 27, an instructor with Pelican Flight Training based at North Perry Airport (HWO), The Miami Herald reported.

Meg Fencome, vice-president of PFT, confirmed Sunday that Brown was an instructor with the school. He had taken off from HWO with a student at about 3 pm in a 1979 Cessna 172R and headed for a practice area in western Broward County. 'We are not going to release any more information until tomorrow," Fencome said.

Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the other plane was a 1997 Piper PA-44 Seminole with two people onboard. It took off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) at about 3:30 pm Saturday and was also headed for the same practice area.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board on scene Sunday expected to return Monday to continue their investigation.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.faa.gov