14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Sunday, April 12, 2015 in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Aircraft: PIPER PA-31T1, registration: N119RL
Injuries: 4 Fatal.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
On April 12, 2015, about 1625 eastern daylight time (EDT), a Piper PA-31T1, N119RL, collided with terrain on final approach to runway 13 at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The private pilot and three passengers were fatally injured and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a post-crash fire. The airplane was registered to a private company and was operated by the pilot under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Day, visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, and an instrument flight rules flight plan was filed. The local flight originated from Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), Orlando, Florida, about 1520.
According to information obtained from air traffic control, the pilot checked in with FXE tower personnel and initially did not report any problems with the flight. N119RL was cleared to land on Runway 9. A short time later, the pilot reported to the local controller that he had smoke in the cockpit. The controller cleared N119RL to land on any runway. The pilot responded that he would take runway 13, and the controller cleared him to land on runway 13. The pilot then called out "mayday" several times before the airplane crashed approximately ¼ mile from the approach end of Runway 13.
The pilot, age 51, held a private pilot certificate with airplane single engine, multi-engine, and instrument airplane ratings. He reported 1,221 hours total flight time on his most recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) medical certificate, dated February 18, 2015. Records recovered from the wreckage also indicate that he completed a PA-31 initial training course one week prior to the accident.
The 7-seat airplane was manufactured in 1979 and was equipped with two Pratt and Whitney Canada PT6A-11 turboprop engines. The aircraft maintenance records indicated that an annual inspection of the airframe, engines, and propellers was completed on April 3, 2015.
The wreckage was located inside a fenced nature preserve within the boundary of the airport. The main wreckage was located directly under the extended centerline for runway 13. The wreckage debris field was about 167 ft in length and about 50 ft wide, oriented on a heading of about 112 degrees. All major structural components of the aircraft were found within the confines of the debris field. Both engines were separated from the airframe and both propeller assemblies were separated from the engines during the accident sequence.
Any witnesses should email witness@ntsb.gov, and any friends and family who want to contact investigators about the accident should email assistance@ntsb.gov.
http://registry.faa.gov/N119RL
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Plot John Patrick Van Ommeren completed an initial training course to fly a Piper Cheyenne just one week before his plane crashed near Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, killing all four on board.
That was one of the details in a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report released Thursday. Although NTSB will investigate all aspects of the April 12 accident, pilot experience likely will become a primary focus.
Also killed in the accident were Monique Van Ommeren, 49, Sacha Van Ommeren,15, and Sharissa Van Ommeren, 13, all residents of Paramaribo, Suriname.
John Patrick Van Ommeren, 51, initially mentioned no problems to air traffic controllers after taking off from Orlando.
While approaching Fort Lauderdale, he reported smoke in the cockpit and was told he could use any runway. After lining up to land on the diagonal runway, he called out "mayday" several times before the plane plummeted.
It crashed a quarter mile short of the runway into a nature preserve, broke apart and erupted into flames at about 4:25 p.m. on that Sunday.
Records showed Van Ommeren had 1,221 hours of total flight time and was authorized to fly multi-engine airplanes and on instruments, the NTSB report said.
Although that is a fair amount of experience, investigators will try to determine how many hours of training Van Ommeren had in the seven-seat Cheyenne, a complex aircraft.
Records also showed the twin-engine Cheyenne, built in 1979, had received a comprehensive maintenance inspection on April 3, nine days before the accident.
Republic of Suriname thanks South Florida investigators for help with plane crash investigation
The pilot and three passengers who perished April 12 in a Fort Lauderdale plane crash turned out to be citizens of Suriname.
The South American country's embassy in Washington, DC sent along a statement about the crash. In addition to naming the victims -- John Patrick van Ommeren, 51; Monique van Ommeren-Wilmink, 49; Sacha van Ommeren, 15 and Sharissa van Ommeren, 13 -- it thanked the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office, Fort Lauderdale police detectives and the Broward Sheriff's crime lab for their work.
LISTEN: Pilot yells 'Mayday' in radio transmission
Fort Lauderdale police identified the victims as John Van Ommeren, 51, his wife, Monique Van Ommeren, 49, and their two daughters, Sacha Van Ommeren, 16, and Sharissa Van Ommeren, 13. They lived in Paramaribo, Suriname, on the northeastern coast of South America.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The victims who were killed when a plane crashed into a nature preserve Sunday in Fort Lauderdale were identified Thursday as a family of four from South America.
Fort Lauderdale police identified the victims as John Van Ommeren, 51, his wife, Monique Van Ommeren, 49, and their two daughters, Sacha Van Ommeren, 16, and Sharissa Van Ommeren, 13. They lived in Paramaribo, Suriname, on the northeastern coast of South America.
The fatal crash occurred Sunday afternoon in a wooded area just north of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Ralph Hicks said the pilot of the twin-engine Piper PA-31 was about two miles from the runway when he reported smoke in the cockpit.
The plane departed from Orlando Executive Airport.
Witnesses said the plane banked sharply before nose-diving into the ground.
Federal Aviation Administration records show the plane was built in 1979 and had recently been re-certified. It was registered to a company in Onalaska, Texas.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Using DNA and dental records, the ME determined the four people in the plane were John Van Ommeren, 51; Monique Van Ommeren, 49; Sacha Van Ommeren, 15 and 13-year old Sharissa Van Ommeren.
The Van Ommerens were from Paramaribo, Suriname.
The crash happened April 12th around 4:30 p.m. in a wooded section in the 2400 block of NW 62nd Street.
According to Federal Aviation Administration the Piper PA-31T had taken off from Orlando and was bound for Ft. Lauderdale. An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said as the pilot approached the airport, he reported a problem.
“When he was about two miles from the runway he reported smoke in the cockpit. Shortly there after he made a transmission, it was an emergency type transmission, we don’t have the exact details of it, but it was a distress call before the crash,” said NTSB investigator Ralph Hicks.
The pilot was cleared for an emergency landing. The plane never made it. It went down about a quarter mile from the runway.
Several people in the area, who saw the plane go down, ran toward the crash site to see if they could help.
“We tried to get over there as fast as we could. We all jumped a bunch of fences, got back there. Probably got about five feet away from it but everything was already in flames,” said Elyssa Service.
The wreckage was taken to Ft. Pierce where NTSB investigators will re-assemble it to try and determine what caused the plane to go down.
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As federal investigators piece together what remains of a plane that crashed Sunday near Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, local authorities are struggling to identify the pilot and three passengers who all perished in the fiery wreckage.
The Broward Medical Examiner's Office was unable to obtain fingerprints from the remains of the four bodies and must follow other paths the evidence may provide.
Investigators are having difficulty getting dental records because the foursome is believed to be from Suriname and there is a language barrier, the office said Wednesday.
It is working with that South American country's embassy in Washington, while at the same time trying to process victims' DNA, an official said.
Meanwhile at the St. Lucie County International Airport in Fort Pierce, the National Transportation Safety Board was laying out wreckage from the 36-year-old, twin-engine Piper Cheyenne plane.
The pilot was about two miles from landing at the airport and had reported smoke in the cockpit of the plane before it fell from the sky and plunged into woods on the north side of the airfield around 4:30 p.m.
The crash site, where a safety board investigator said the aircraft had fragmented into more than 100 pieces, was near the 2400 block of Northwest 62nd Street, opposite Calvary Chapel.
"We do a reconstruction on the ground of sections of the airplane," said Ralph Hicks, a senior air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board. He was at its Fort Pierce hangar, where wreckage from other crashes is stored. "A lot of it is burned away."
Hicks said what was left of the plane would be reassembled in sections "to document all the factual evidence. That's the first part of the investigation process."
The pilot was rated to fly in multi-engine aircraft and on instruments, Hicks said Monday.
The safety board will look into all aspects of the flight, including the plane's maintenance history and the pilot's experience. It usually takes more than a year to determine a likely cause for a crash.
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