‘Truly a hero’: Pilot of small plane dies after crashing near a Hollywood shopping center

The pilot of a small plane died Wednesday afternoon when the aircraft crashed across the street from a Hollywood shopping center near Hollywood Boulevard, according to authorities.

The banner plane that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) identified as a single-engine Piper PA-25-235 went down around 12:36 p.m. near 450 N. Park Rd., across the street from the Hollywood Hills Plaza shopping center, once known as Hollywood Mall, where a Target and a Publix are located.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said reports indicate that only the pilot was on board.

Authorities are asking people to stay way from the area. North Park Road will remain closed from Hollywood Boulevard to Fillmore Street until at least 5 p.m. Thursday, Hollywood police alerted. Anyone needing to get to Memorial Hospital will need to choose an alternate route, police spokeswoman Deanna Bettineschi said.

Preliminary information shows the plane took off from North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines, Arlene Satchell, a spokeswoman for the Broward County Aviation Department, told the Miami Herald. The crash site about five miles from the airport.

When firefighters arrived, they found a small plane fully engulfed in flames, city of Hollywood spokeswoman Joann Hussey told the Miami Herald. The fire was subsequently extinguished.

“We believe one person was onboard and is deceased,” Hussey said.

There is no evidence that the plane hit other vehicles, Bettineschi added.

Karen Schiff, a physical therapist at the nearby Memorial Regional Hospital Fitness and Rehabilitation Center, 300 Hollywood Way, saw the small aircraft coming down and watched it crash in front of her — engulfing in flames almost immediately.

“If the plane had landed 15 feet (closer), it would have been in our building,” she told the Herald. “Whoever it was, made every attempt to not hurt anybody else on both sides of the road.”

Schiff and other bystanders tried to see if they could get anyone out of the wreckage but the flames were too much.

“I just can’t get the picture out of my head right now,” she said. “Whoever it was truly a hero and went out of their way to not hurt anybody else.”

Footage from Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami shows firefighters dousing the scorched and mangled plane with water.

The NTSB will lead the crash investigation and wants anyone who saw the crash or has video to send an email to witness@NTSB.gov.

Plane crashes near North Perry Airport

It isn’t uncommon for small planes to crash at or near the North Perry Airport. Since Nov. 2019, at least seven crashes in the area have made headlines.

Here are six that preceded Wednesday’s:

▪ March 15, 2021: Tyler Bishop, 4-year-old son of Hollywood Hills Elementary School paraprofessional Megan Bishop, was killed when a crashing plane struck his mother’s SUV as the Bishops rode along Southwest 72nd Avenue in Pembroke Pines. Both pilot and passenger inside the plane were killed and Bishop was injured.

▪ Dec. 17, 2020: One person was hurt in a crash just after takeoff at North Perry.

▪ Dec. 2, 2020: A small plane crashed onto its roof at North Perry, but no injuries were reported.

▪ Nov. 23, 2020: A pilot was killed when his plane had engine trouble just after takeoff from North Perry Airport.

▪ May 12, 2020: A plane crash at Miramar Commons shopping center, 11150 Pembroke Rd., killed Wayman Aviation Academy student Mark Scott and seriously injured flight instructor Andres Bastidas.

▪ Nov. 12, 2019: A plane crashed at North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines, sending a student pilot to the hospital.