By Ken Kaye, David Fleshler and Sofia Santana
Orlando Sun-Sentinel
Copyright 2007 South Florida Sun-Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A 34-year-old pilot from Fort Lauderdale was hospitalized after crash landing his twin-engine aircraft on busy Interstate 95 Friday afternoon, snarling traffic but injuring no one on the ground.
“It was amazing that he didn’t hit anything else,” said Lois Bowman, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue division chief.
The pilot was identified as Robert Robertson, 34. He flew for Monarch Air Group, and was ferrying clothes and shoes to Nassau, Bahamas when his plane began losing power and altitude soon after takeoff from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.
Monarch owner Paul Slavin credited Robertson with skillfully handling the plane when he ran into trouble.
“He’s extremely experienced. He saved a lot of lives with what he did,” Slavin said.
The accident shut down the southbound lanes, causing massive traffic delays. Motorists were encouraged to avoid the area altogether and take alternative routes including: U.S. 441/State Road 7, Florida’s Turnpike, Federal Highway, Andrews Avenue, Powerline Road and other north-south arteries.
Southbound I-95 was narrowed to two lanes south of Cypress Creek Road. Many drivers caught in the jam opted to exit the highway at Atlantic Boulevard or points north and head to Florida’s Turnpike.
At 6:30 p.m., troopers closed all southbound lanes of I-95 south of Cypress Creek Road so crews could remove fuel from the downed plane.
The highway was expected to remain closed for up to 30 minutes, said Sgt. Mark Wysocky, spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol.
Once the fuel is removed, the inside shoulder and two left lanes will reopen. The three far right southbound lanes likely will remain closed through Friday evening until the plane can be removed.
“There’s a crane on the way and then it’s a matter of picking up the plane and moving it out of the way,” Wysocky said. “We’ll still probably some lanes closed on the far right through this evening.”
The state’s overhead message signs on southbound I-95 were activated as far north as the Broward-Palm Beach county line, warning drivers that the four right southbound lanes were closed south of Cypress Creek.
The 1964 Super Twin Beech took off about 1:30 p.m., heading east. Moments later, Robertson began losing power and altitude, police said.
Robertson called the airport’s control tower and declared an emergency, said Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
The plane clipped the northeast corner a Florida Department of Transportation storage building, which is located off Powerline Road and backs up to I-95 just north of Commercial Boulevard. The impact left a small hole in the wall but the building itself sustained no significant damage and no one was injured, DOT officials said.
Robertson then put the 4-ton aircraft down on the busy interstate north of the Commercial Boulevard exit. The plane came to rest on a grassy embankment.
According to fire-rescue officials, Robertson pilot suffered leg, arm and head injuries. He had to be extricated from the aircraft and was airlifted to Broward General Medical Center, said Fort Lauderdale Police spokesman Frank Sousa. No one else was injured.
Jonathan Hart, assistant to Monarch owner Slavin, described Roberston as an experienced airline pilot who would know what to do to prevent an emergency from becoming a catastrophe.
“If he experienced a failure, the first thing on his mind would be the safety of others,” Hart said. “It looks like he was trying to aim for the railroad or the grassy area. Knowing Bob personally, I’m sure he was looking at his options and didn’t want to injure anyone driving in a car.”
“Bob is a very experienced pilot,” he said. “He knows that airplane. If there was anyone to have a problem with a Beech 18, he’d be the one you’d want.”
He said Robertson had relatives in Louisiana whom the company was trying to contact.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with him,” he said.
The plane was mangled in the accident, its front end crushed. A hazardous materials team was dispatched to spray the highway and plane with foam.
Workers at Needham Re-Roofing, a company based just east of the airport at 5610 NW 12th Ave., saw the plane going down. They got in a vehicle and rushed to the accident scene.
“We saw the pilot just sitting there, and the two feet of fuselage in front of him was just gone,” said Fred Allen, the company’s superintendent. “It was like he was just sitting there in the road.”
The plane is registered to Monarch Air Group of Palm City, Fla., Bergen said. According to Monarch’s on-line site, the company provides charter service to the Bahamas.
The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched an investigator to the scene. The FAA is also investigating.
Whether the plane’s age was a factor in the accident was not immediately known. Air accident investigators routinely look at a variety of factors, including how a plane is maintained, the pilot’s skills and the weather.
The Super Twin Beech was a popular commuter aircraft in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, generally seating up to 11 passengers. Many are still in use for cargo and passenger operations today.
The National Weather Service says a thunderstorm had been developing south of Executive Airport before the report of the crash.
“Between 1:30 and 1:40 there was a rapidly developing thunderstorm just south of Executive Airport,” said Gordon Strassberg, a meteorologist with the weather service.
The storm moved north over the airport between 1:40 and 1:55, he said.
Staff Writers Joel Marino, Michael Turnbell and Tiffany Ellis contributed to this report.