A flight instructor from a Pompano Beach-based flight school and a 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 as the men who died by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Thursday afternoon.
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.
The Piper PA28 they were flying crashed off one of the runways and into the water shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday. Divers and deputies in a Sheriff’s Office helicopter found them in the submerged plane and pulled them from the water by a rescue basket hanging off the helicopter, officials previously said.
Before the crash, the Piper PA28 took off from Pompano Beach Airpark shortly after 8 a.m., flew to Sarasota, then to Melbourne and finally was landing at the north Palm Beach County airport about 2:08 p.m., according to FlightAware.
2 men dead after small plane crashed in lake at north Palm Beach County airport
The men were practicing landing and taking off when they crashed, National Transportation Safety Board air safety investigator Daniel Boggs said at a news conference at the airport Thursday afternoon. The pilot was taking lessons to get his instrument rating, Boggs said.
An instrument rating requires learning to fly solely by referencing instruments, according to ATP Flight School, a Fort-Lauderdale based school.
Boggs did not release the name of the flight school but said it operates in Pompano Beach.
It was not immediately known which man was the instructor and which was taking lessons. The owner of the plane did not immediately return a voicemail Thursday afternoon.
The plane was built in 1979, “a young aircraft,” 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.
A preliminary report will be available in about two weeks, Boggs said.
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