These Everglades plane crashes resulted in the most passenger deaths in the giant Florida wetlands
Two people who were aboard a plane that was reported missing on Tuesday evening were found dead in the wreckage of a crash in the Everglades on Wednesday morning. The crash is the latest aviation tragedy involving a plane ending up in Florida's Everglades.
Here’s what we know about the crash and some other notable plane crashes that took place in Florida’s biggest swamp through the years.
Did a plane crash in the Everglades?
A single-engine Cessna 172 was reported missing at around 6:45 p.m. Tuesday after leaving North Perry Airport, Broward rescue officials told local media, and contact was lost 15 minutes later. It is unknown where the plane was headed.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told WTVJ that the wreckage was found around 10:50 a.m., near Alligator Alley in the Florida Everglades.
Has a plane ever crashed in the Everglades?
According to the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives, there have been five recorded plane crashes in the Everglades, including Wednesday’s crash. One of those crashes, a 2022 crash with two passengers, resulted in no injuries or fatalities.
What year did the Eastern Airlines plane crash in the Everglades?
In 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing 112 of the 163 people on board the flight.
The flight was on its way from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and crashed while approaching Miami’s international airport.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, “The crash was the result of an inadvertent autopilot disconnection that went unnoticed by the flight crew as they were attempting to correct an unsafe landing gear position indication.”
Where did Flight 592 crash?
The second-most tragic Everglades plane crash was in 1996, when ValuJet Flight 592 went down over the swamp on its way to Atlanta from Miami. One hundred and ten people died on flight 592.
Only a few minutes elapsed before the plane caught fire at around 10,000 feet in the air. The captain incorrectly assumed it was “some electrical problem,” and tried unsuccessfully to re-route back to the Miami Airport.
The National Transportation Safety Board later found that one or more oxygen generators were being improperly stored on the plane as cargo.
According to the FAA, only 10 minutes passed between takeoff in Miami and the flight’s crash in the Everglades. All 110 passengers and crew members were killed in the accident.
What caused the Flight 705 plane crash in the Everglades?
Two days before Valentine’s Day, on February 12, 1963, Northwest Airlines’ flight 705 crashed in the Everglades after departing from Miami and hitting a thunderstorm.
The flight was intended to leave Miami and arrive in Portland, Oregon, with stops in Chicago, Illinois and Spokane and Seattle, Washington.
The plane’s radio lost contact and disappeared from radar only a few minutes after leaving Miami and flying into a storm above the Everglades.
According to the Everglades website and the Civil Aeronautics Board of 1965, “The cause was determined to be the result of the impacts of turbulence on the plane itself, coupled with the pilots’ attempts to control the aircraft leading to a sharp dive exceeding the airplane’s operational limitations, after which time it disintegrated in mid-air.”
None of the 43 passengers or crew members on flight 705 to Portland were found alive.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Has a plane ever crashed in the Everglades? Here are the most tragic
