The investigation into a fatal banner plane crash in Hollywood was underway Thursday as new details were being released about the pilot who was killed.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board were at the scene Thursday morning as the wreckage of the plane was being removed piece by piece.
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It was around 12:35 p.m. Wednesday when the single-engine yellow Piper PA-25-235 plane went down on North Park Road, next to the parking lot of a Target and not far from Memorial Regional Hospital.
In 911 calls released Thursday, witnesses described the moment the plane crashed.
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"Hi, I'm on North Park Road, right in front of Target, and it looks like a small airplane just crashed in the road," a woman tells a 911 operator. "It's on fire, yes, it exploded."
"I heard a loud boom and it immediately engulfed in flames. So I would say that whoever was in it did not likely get out," she added.
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Cellphone video from witnesses showed the plane on fire on the roadway after it crashed.
The pilot, the only person who was on board, was killed. He was identified by Hollywood Police as 28-year-old Mitchell Knaus. A friend told NBC6 Knaus had been a commercial pilot for some time.
Knaus had moved from California to South Florida just a month and a half ago, his roommate said.
"The morning of the accident, we went jogging together in the park close by the house and then we just (said) goodbye, see you later tomorrow or tonight, and then the accident happened," said Daniel Corti, Knaus' roommate.
Federal Aviation Administration officials said the plane belonged to Aerial Banners, which uses planes to advertise for companies.
A spokesman for the NTSB said Thursday that Knaus had around 325 hours of commercial flight experience but less than 20 hours of flight experience with the type of banner plane that crashed.
"I know he was a recent hire with this company. He had gotten extensive ground training and classroom training," senior NTSB safety investigators Brian Rayner said. "He had a total of 13 to 15 hours of actual flight experience in this make and model airplane."
An air traffic control tower radio transmission captured the moments the plane took a nosedive.
"Banner Zero Alpha Bravo, everything okay? You’re descending rapidly," the tower controller asks. "Everybody full staff, I have an aircraft in distress."
“They were speaking back and forth and the controller had some concerns about the pilot’s altitude and he reassured the controller that he was going to continue the flight and then the conversation changed somewhat later in the flight," Rayner said.
Despite the plane going down on a public street near a busy intersection and shopping center, no one on the ground was injured.
“It’s fortuitous. It’s a tragedy whenever you have a fatality but the fact that we have no ground injuries is heartening because sometimes we don’t fare as well," Rayner said.
The NTSB said the plane had taken off from North Perry Airport and was hauling a large banner advertising Aerial Banners' services.
Aerial Banners was linked to five crashes and emergency landings from 2014 to 2019, NBC6 found. A crash from 2019 had had some of the worst wreckage after the plane crashed into the side of a condo building near Fort Lauderdale and plummeted 14 stories onto a pool deck, killing the pilot.
NBC6 reached out to Aerial Banners for a statement and was waiting to hear back.
