Photo: Martin County Sheriff's Office
We're learning more about a crash-landing in the Hungryland Preserve.
The pilot of the small plane has been identified as 19-year-old Anders Brock-Utne of Dallas-Texas who rented a single-engine fixed-wing Piper Aircraft in Melbourne to log flight hours.
The Martin County Sheriff's Office shared new information yesterday on the Saturday night crash that ended with the plane on its roof in the preserve near Pratt Whitney Road, just north of Indiantown Road.
Sheriff John Budensiek says the pilot flew the plane down to Fort Lauderdale where he landed and took off again. He was heading back to Melbourne and halfway up he had engine failure. Brock-Utne attempted to turn back towards Fort Lauderdale before aiming for a rural landing strip and eventually a canal road. The plane hit the ground short of that road and flipped over.
The pilot was uninjured and nobody else was on the plane. FWC secured the scene and the NTSB arrived on Sunday. That agency, along with the FAA are investigating the cause of the crash.