Two Killed in Small Plane Crash at South Florida Airport, the Second This Year

A flight instructor and a student pilot died Friday when a small plane crashed at a south Florida airport, Palm Beach County authorities said.

The crash at the Palm Beach County Park Airport in Lantana happened shortly after 11 a.m. Television helicopter footage shows the Cessna Skyhawk broken into several pieces well off the runway. Ana Diego Matias, 20, and instructor Stanley Sands, 76, died in the crash, according to the Palm Beach Post newspaper.

Flightaware.com, an online flight tracking service, shows that the plane was taking off or had just taken off when it crashed. The flight records show that the single-propeller plane typically made several short flights each day, taking off and then returning to the Lantana airport or, occasionally, flying to other small airports in the area.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate along with the Palm Beach County sheriff’s office.

The airport serves small planes and is home to flight schools, advertising banner companies, repair shops and other aviation-related businesses. It is the second deadly crash this year: John Holland, 43, of Delray Beach and Michael Marshall Jr., 34 , of Boca Raton died when their Diamond DA40 crashed on March 5, according to news reports.

Photo: This still image taken from video provided by WPTV shows emergency responders at the scene of a plane crash at Palm Beach County Park Airport near Lantana, Florida, on Friday. (WPTV via AP)