WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — Seven members of a local family were injured when their plane went off a runway at the North Palm Beach County airport Thursday, flipping into a pond.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office identified the seven residents on the plane as Joseph Allen, 70, who owned the plane, Diana Allen, 70, both of Edinburgh, and another Joseph Allen, 36, Angela Allen, 38, and children, Abram McCarthy, 12, Logan Allen, 4, and Heidi Allen, 2, all of Columbus.
The plane crash happened at 11:15 a.m. Thursday while the twin-engine Cessna 414 was taking off from the North Palm Beach County General Aviation Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Brandon Allen, son of the older Joseph Allen, said his father and the others were in Florida on vacation and were on their way back to Columbus when the plane crash occurred.
The members of the Allen family and two people at the airport who were nearby and worked to pull the victims out of the plane were taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, according to Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue.
Brandon said that his father and stepmother were initially in the intensive care unit, and he believes they were being transferred out. He said that he believes his brother and sister-in-law, the younger Joseph Allen and Angela, were in a regular hospital and both will be released soon. Hospital officials had said they could be released Friday or Saturday.
“Everybody’s been spoken to,” he said. “They’re all lucid. They’re in good spirits.”
He did say that some family members “sustained painful fractures and lacerations.”
Brandon said his father has flown for about 44 years, and his brother is also a pilot.
The FAA entry said that the 50-year-old twin-engine Cessna 414, a seven-seater, “failed to climb during takeoff and ran off (the) departure end of (the) runway,” according to reporting in the Palm Beach Post.
Palm Beach County and Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue vehicles stand by following a plane crash near Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. All seven people on board sustained injuries along with two people who tried to rescue those aboard. Photo courtesy of the Palm Beach Post.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
