A flight instructor from a Pompano Beach-based flight school and a registered private pilot from South Florida have been identified as the two men who were killed Wednesday when the small plane they were flying crashed into a swampy lake at North Palm Beach County General Aviation Airport.
Stephen Taylor, 59, of Hollywood, and Gojko Damjanic, 58, of Fort Lauderdale, were identified by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday afternoon as the men who died.
It was not clear which man was the instructor and which was taking lessons. Taylor earned his airline transport pilot certificate and ground instructor certificate in 2004 and his flight instructor certification in 2022, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
Taylor and Damjanic spent Wednesday morning into the afternoon flying the Piper PA28 around the state, as one of the men was training to get a specific qualification, according to officials and flight-tracking data from FlightAware.
They took off from Pompano Beach Airpark shortly after 8 a.m., flew to Sarasota, then to Melbourne and finally landed at the north Palm Beach County airport at 2:08 p.m., according to FlightAware. People called 911 minutes later, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue said.
While practicing taking off and landing, the plane crashed from one of the runways into the lake, National Transportation Safety Board air safety investigator Daniel Boggs said at a news conference at the airport Thursday afternoon. The private pilot was taking lessons to receive his instrument rating, he said.
An instrument rating requires learning to fly solely by referencing instruments, according to ATP Flight School, a Fort Lauderdale-based school.
2 men dead after small plane crashed in lake at north Palm Beach County airport
The force of the crash split the plane in two, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Capt. Tom Reyes told reporters at the scene Wednesday. Rescue divers waded through as much as 20 feet of mud in order to get into water deep enough to swim.
Divers and deputies searched for the men for over an hour. Deputies in a Sheriff’s Office helicopter saw the plane underwater, and the men were pulled out using a basket hanging from the helicopter by about 3:30 p.m., Reyes said. They were pronounced dead when they arrived at the hospital, the Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday night.
Boggs did not release the name of the flight school but said it operates in Pompano Beach.
The owner of the plane, Paul Sanchez, owner of Sanchez Aviation Training Services in Boca Raton, did not return a voicemail or text message Thursday.
Sanchez told WPTV-Ch. 5 that he rented the plane to people. Technology on the plane, if able to be recovered, will give investigators specific information about the flight history, he told the TV station.
“It is a very sad day for two families. These are people who have been in aviation for a fair amount of time. It’s sad we lost them,” Sanchez’s statement to WPTV said.
The plane was “a young aircraft” built in 1979 and a type typically used by flight schools Boggs said. It has since been removed from the lake and will be kept at a facility for the NTSB to review during their investigation.
Investigators will review “everything from the engine to the pilot qualifications, the airframe” and the weather, though Boggs said he did not believe preliminarily it affected the flight. They will also examine the flight school.
A preliminary report will be available in about two weeks, Boggs said. It can take over a year for a final report to be published.
