CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. — Federal investigators released a preliminary report Wednesday on the deadly crash of a plane delivering hurricane relief supplies from South Florida to Jamaica in November.
The crash happened on the morning of Nov. 10 within the gated Windsor Bay neighborhood of Coral Springs.
Pilot Alexander Wurm, 53, and his daughter Serena Wurm, 22, both of the Cayman Islands, were flying from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport to Montego Bay to deliver relief supplies for victims of Hurricane Melissa on behalf of a Christian group when the Beechcraft King Air B100 crashed into a pond nose-first at speed, killing both.
Wednesday’s report, released by the National Transportation Safety Board, doesn’t appear to draw any conclusions about the suspected cause of the crash.
However, investigators indirectly alluded to possible weight-and-balance issues with the cargo aboard.
The report states that about an hour before the crash, a local church group had arrived at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport with supplies, “which included a generator and multiple boxes of tarpaulins, electric tools, screws and flashlights.”
Alexander Wurm, investigators said, told the group that he could take about 1,000 lb of cargo, but the group “noticed that he had already loaded about 200 lbs of equipment into the airplane behind the pilot’s seat” as they loaded the cargo through the rear and Wurm arranged it within the cabin.
“The generator (which did not contain fuel) was loaded in the aft baggage compartment and secured to the airframe with webbing,” the report states. “The remaining cargo was placed by the pilot on the cabin seats and their footwells.”
The report states that the cargo wasn’t physically weighed, but Alexander Wurm instead “checked the weight documented on each box as the airplane was loaded” and “finished the loading process once he determined that capacity had been reached,” determining that leftover cargo could be taken on another flight.
“Review of a photo taken after completion showed that the center aisle of the cabin was clear and that the cargo was loaded unsecured throughout the cabin on passenger seats,” the report states. “The airplane was then filled to capacity with the addition of 282 gallons of Jet-A fuel.”
The plane took off from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at around 10:14 a.m. and officials said Alexander Wurm leveled off at about 4,000 ft after a three-and-a-half-minute takeoff and climb. Investigators said Wurm acknowledged air traffic control instructions to turn and a few seconds later, the plane started accelerating descending to 3,100 feet.
Wurm did not acknowledge an instruction from the air traffic controller, investigators said.
“With no response from the pilot, the controller transmitted, ‘November zero hotel golf, climbing?’” the report states. “Heavy breathing and “grunting” sounds could then be heard and by that time the airplane had descended to about 1,500 ft and reached an airspeed of about 270 kts," or about 310 mph, as the plane’s signal disappeared just before impact.
Surveillance video showing the crash “showed the airplane emerging from clouds and passing right to left in a nose-down attitude” before hitting the pond about three seconds later, investigators said.
The report notes, “The airplane was not trailing smoke or vapors in any of the recordings, all of which captured the sound of engines operating.”
Investigators also noted that the plane entered a band of clouds associated with a cold front shortly after takeoff.
According to the report, Wurm bought the plane, which was manufactured in 1976, in February 2024, giving it a “complete interior furnishings and avionics suite upgrade” four months later.
Investigators noted that details in the report were “subject to change.”
Read the report:
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