A woman believed to be a relative of one of the men killed when a small plane crashed in the Florida Everglades near Broward earlier this week is heard pleading with a dispatcher for answers after not hearing from him in a dramatic new 911 call.
"He was flying last night, he has not made contact, which is very unusual," the woman says in the call, which was released Friday. "I'm in California so I cannot drive to his house and check if he made it ok, but his phone is offline, it's very odd, so I'm concerned."
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WATCH HEREMohamed Badenjki, 51, of North Miami Beach, and Khadim Kebe, 37, of Texas, were on board the single-engine Cessna when it went down north of Interstate 75 near mile marker 28, not far from Weston, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.
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BSO Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Michael Kane said it's believed the plane left North Perry Airport around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and went off the radar around 6:45 p.m.
In the 911 call, the woman mentions that she received a message from Badenjki while he was in the air.
"So he was flying somewhere, I don't know where he was flying. On his way back, he texted me a picture that it was like, really dark when they were flying back, that he couldn't see anything and that they were using their instruments," she says. "I'm on a work trip in California, I have texted him since then and his phone is offline. I call him and his phone is off. And he has not told me that he has landed and he hasn't contacted me since then. Which is very unusual."
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Kane said authorities didn't receive a call about the missing aircraft until around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Crews found the plane's wreckage a short time later, along with the bodies of the two men on board.
"He always calls me when he lands, he calls me from home, tells me good night, he calls me when he wakes up. So I'm concerned, like I want to know if he made it back," the woman says in the 911 call.
Badenjki was a pilot who had been flying for several years and was a well-known member of the aviation community.
Back in 2009, Badenjki was awarded the MIA Hero of the Year when he was an American Airlines customer service agent after he used life-saving CPR skills to help passengers three times in one week.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating the crash.
