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A cargo plane leaving the Opa-Locka airport at 8:45 this morning lost one of it's engines and tryed to return to make a emergency landing back at the airport. it ended up in Mall Lake just south of Aventura Mall. The plane was owned by Miami Air Lease. The plane was a Convair 340. PETER ANDREW BOSCH/HERALD STAFF
Pilot Alex Bristol, 28, and his wife, Parinaz Bristol, are all smiles after he safely crash landed a Convair cargo plane in Mall Lake off of Biscayne Blvd. and 172 Street shortly after takeoff from Opa Locka Airport around 9 AM. The cargo plane was going to the Bahamas. JOSHUA PREZANT/FOR THE HERALD
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• Video | Cargo plane crashes in lake
'Amazing' pilots land in urban lake
When the engine of a cargo plane failed, the pilots were forced to make an emergency landing in an unlikely place -- a lake near the Aventura Mall, one of the most dense urban regions of Miami-Dade.
BY DAVID OVALLE, NATHALIE GOUILLOU AND SUSANNAH A. NESMITH
dovalle@herald.com
A cargo plane safely avoided rows of high-rise condos, power lines and stunned observers aboard docked boats before skidding to an emergency landing Saturday morning just south of the Aventura Mall -- in a lake.
The pilots escaped unharmed and dry as they were plucked by rescuers from atop the fuselage.
They were immediately lauded for safely downing the white cargo plane -- emblazoned with a red Bush campaign slogan -- in one of the most dense urban regions of Miami-Dade County.
''I don't consider myself a hero,'' said pilot Alejandro Bristol, calmly talking to reporters lakeside. ``It's part of the job.''
The old Convair 340, owned by Miami Air Lease, had just taken off from Opa-locka Airport and was headed toward the Bahamas when one of its two propeller engines malfunctioned.
This is what the pilots, rescuers, police and witnesses said happened:
It was expected to be a routine flight to Nassau, one the pilots do several times a week. Copilot Dennys Villavicencio enjoyed a Croissan'wich and black coffee from Burger King before boarding the plane, which was carrying electronics and toys in its hold.
Everything seemed routine as the 49-year-old aircraft lifted off from Opa-locka Airport at 8 a.m.
Less than an hour later, as the plane cruised about 3,000 feet about four miles off-shore, a vibration from the left wing rumbled through the plane.
The engine was failing. It shut off.
But the propeller kept spinning, known in pilot jargon as ``windmilling.''
That creates drag on the plane, making it difficult to control with only one engine. The plane turned around toward the coastline.
But they knew they couldn't make it back to Opa-locka.
''We kept our calm,'' Bristol said.
Said Villavicencio: ``We were worried about hitting houses.''
So they decided to land the plane in Maule Lake in North Miami Beach, once a rock quarry mined by the family of former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferré.
Clearing the power lines was Bristol's biggest concern.
The sight of the 79-foot cargo plane gliding down seemed surreal -- emergency dispatchers were flooded with calls.
Rick Kellogg, himself a helicopter pilot, was drinking a cup of coffee on the deck of his boat, enjoying the morning sun, when he saw the Convair clear the trees to the south.
`PRETTY AMAZING'
''It came just over the edge of the water and just settled down like it was supposed to be there,'' Kellogg said.
Frank Freeman, an employee of the Maule Lake marina, was out on the dock when the plane went down.
''He surfed it across the lake,'' Freeman said. ``It was pretty amazing.''
As the plane floated on the water, Bristol and Villavicencio -- whose helicopter was once shot down during the Nicaraguan civil war -- calmly rolled down the cockpit windows.
They gathered their personal effects, passports and even the cargo manifest and flight log.
Rescuers quickly fished them from atop the plane.
''I was a bit surprised to see a plane that big in the water, and I was surprised to see it was still afloat,'' said Sunny Isles Beach Officer Joe Alvarez, who arrived on his boat within minutes.
``The pilot did an incredible job.''
As reporters and spectators flocked to the scene, fire officials began to work immediately to put an inflatable dike around the plane to contain any leaking fuel. The pilots immediately called their families.
'I was still sleeping, when I picked up the phone, he said, `Love, I'm right here in the water; We are safe,' '' said Ivania Villavicencio, Dennys' wife.
NOT THE FIRST
Villavicencio, 50 and silver-haired, used to fly military helicopters and planes in his native Nicaragua before coming to the United States in the early 1990s.
Bristol, 28, who hails from the Virgin Islands and sports a trim mustache, is a veteran pilot whose father also flew planes.
Saturday was not the first accident to involve cargo planes in recent years.
In 1997, a Fine Air DC-8 crashed minutes after takeoff from Miami International Airport, killing five people. The cause: the cargo was mis-loaded.
It was not clear on Saturday what effect the cargo aboard the Convair had as the engine sputtered, although Villavicencio said everything was loaded properly.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident. NTSB investigator Jose Obregon said the pilot ''did a good job'' landing on the water.
The owner of Miami Air Lease, Evelio Alpizar, wearing a white guayabera shirt and black slacks, rushed to the scene.
Alpizar, a former pilot with the Cuban air force before fleeing the island in 1959, created the Miami-based company with five employees in 1961.
Though the company has owned other planes in the past, Alpizar said the 49-year-old Convair was the company's only plane now.
''And we lost it,'' he said in Spanish, looking bewildered in the afternoon sun.
As reporters gathered around Alpizar, the questions inevitably veered toward the Bush campaign slogan -- ''EELECT GEORGE W. BUSH,'' the ''R'' was missing -- painted in red across the fuselage.
It wouldn't be Miami without Fidel -- Alpizar talked about his disdain for the dictator, leaving Cuba and loving the United States.
''I'm Republican. I always have been,'' he said of the airplane's pro-Bush message. ``It's about the liberty of Cuba.''
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