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I am posting this in the event any of you might have known the pilot. My condolences go out to his family and friends.
Source: http://www.wmtw.com/news/16818525/detail.html
Florida Plane Crash Kills Former Mainer
Victim Once Lived In Lewiston-Auburn Area
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- A well-known doctor and aviator from Maine died in a plane crash Monday night in South Florida.Douglas Pohl, 57, was the only person on board his small plane when it crashed and burst into flames shortly after takeoff.Pohl, who splits his time between Florida and Maine, was the president of Silver Wings Aviation, which operates out of the Auburn-Lewiston airport.This was Pohl's second plane crash. In July 2001, Pohl had taken off from Auburn when his plane's engine quit, forcing him to make a crash landing in Fryeburg.
Source: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/jul/08/family-confirms-martin-county-man-died-fiery-browa/
Family confirms Martin County man died in fiery Broward plane crash
PEMBROKE PINES — A Jupiter man piloting a single-engine airplane built from a kit died Monday evening when the aircraft plummeted to the ground after takeoff, authorities and family said.
The family of 57-year-old Douglas Pohl, whose home is just north of the Palm Beach County line in Martin County, confirmed to NewsChannel 5 and South Florida Sun-Sentinel that he was at the controls when the experimental plane went down shortly after takeoff. Pohl was the only person on board. He used the plane to commute from his home in Jupiter to his office in Miramar.
Rob Ramirez saw the plane go down. "He was at 50 feet, wing stalled, started coming over to the left hand, the left side and after that he just kept coming on around," said Ramirez. "He was upside down and came straight down."
Pohl's mother-in-law, Nancy Heugh, verified this morning that Pohl was the pilot and said his wife, Susan, would not be available to comment today.
"She's just overwhelmed," Heugh said.
The plane landed on a fence separating North Perry Airport from nearby tennis courts, then burst into flames. The plane was so twisted and charred it was impossible to distinguish the tail from the nose.
"It's in pieces right now," said Pembroke Pines police spokesman Sgt. Bryan Davis. "We're still trying to sort out what happened."
The plane was a Lancair IV-P, a small, speedy aircraft that can be built in one's home, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.The craft is registered to Pohl. He's listed under a Jupiter address but state records show he works as a pathologist in Miramar.
Witnesses told police the plane took off westbound from the small airport's southernmost runway shortly before 6 p.m. Once in the air, it banked to the left and crashed nose first onto the chain-link fence between North Perry and tennis courts at the adjacent Paul J. Maxwell Park, located on Southwest 72nd Avenue. There was no one at the courts when the plane crashed, police said."By and large these people are very knowledgeable, but to have the engine catch fire is as bad as it gets," said Nick Schillen, a pilot who also flies out of the Pembroke Pines airport.
Self-made aircraft, which are also called experimental planes, have to pass rigorous inspections and tests before they're certified, said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen. "They're very popular with people who are really into aviation," she said. "But they still have to meet stringent standards."
Pohl built and registered the plane in 2000, federal records show. It wasn't his first. "My friends play golf. This is my version of golf," he told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 1994 just after he'd finished a kit plane.
Pohl said then that he often tinkered with his planes while wearing his surgical scrubs.
A man who picked up the phone at Pohl's last known address said he knew why reporters were calling, but declined to comment. No one answered his office phone or door.
"This was very shocking, very unfortunate," said Larry Cappolino, a mechanic with an aviation company based out of North Perry Airport.
Cappolino said Pohl used the plane to get to work. He recently replaced the plane's engine with a motor taken from a Chevy Corvette.
"That's a high performance engine. It can make a plane go 200 mph plus," he said.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash.
North Perry Airport is a public general aviation airport sited on 536 acres in south Broward. It is located between Southwest 72nd Avenue and University Drive and between Pines Boulevard and Pembroke Road. It is owned by the Broward County Aviation Department. Last year, the airport was named the 2008 "General Aviation Airport of the Year" by the Florida Department of Transportation.
