Two commercial pilots had rented a Cessna 172 from a flight school and were planning to fly from Broward County to Naples and back when the small plane crashed near Weston on Jan. 23, killing them both, according to a preliminary investigation report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Khadim Kebe, 37, of Texas, and Mohamed Badenjki, 51, of North Miami Beach were both Federal Aviation Administration certified pilots. Their bodies and the plane wreckage were discovered Jan. 24, a day after the crash, near Mile Marker 28 on Interstate 75.
The plane took off from North Perry Airport about 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 23 and was being operated as a personal flight. The two men planned to return to North Perry Airport that same night, the flight school’s owner told NTSB investigators, according to the report released Wednesday.
Its altitude fluctuated multiple times from about five minutes into the flight until seconds before it crashed. The speed of the plane rapidly increased during the last few moments of flight, according to the report.
Twenty seconds before the plane’s track data was lost, it was about 1,300 feet above mean sea level and traveling at a ground speed of about 109 knots, or about 125 miles per hour, when it began descending. At 6:44 p.m., the last data point showed the plane was 450 feet above median sea level, moving at a ground speed of about 165 mph, according to the NTSB report.
It crashed in a swampy area near the Florida Everglades. Debris was scattered on a 300-foot-long path, according to the report. The left wing separated from the fuselage, the main body of the plane, while the main wreckage came to a stop in a few feet of water.
A fire erupted after the crash and consumed parts of the plane’s main body and right wing. The instrument panel, firewall and engine were found about 25 feet north of the main wreckage, the report said.
The plane was owned by Florida General Aviation, according to FAA registration records.
Broward Sheriff’s Office Fire Rescue Batallion Chief Michael Kane previously told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that the company operating the plane reported it missing about 10:30 a.m. the morning after the crash. First responders searched the area by airboat and found it less than an hour later.
It was the first deadly crash of 2024 in the area. On Monday, the pilot of a Cessna 150 made an emergency landing near a road intersection in Parkland. One of the two people aboard reported a minor injury but neither person was taken to a hospital.
NTSB investigators recovered the wreckage for further investigation. The report labels the investigation as Class 3 investigation, meaning it will “seek to identify safety issues that reveal underlying cause(s) of the accident,” according to the NTSB’s definition. The agency will release a final report that identifies probable causes.