BOCA RATON — A local 911 operator was inundated with calls on the morning of April 11, as drivers watched a small plane spiral in the air shortly before crashing minutes away from the Boca Raton Airport.
Boca Raton police have released the 911 call log from before and after the crash, and the report details the urgency of the many concerned callers.
First came a call from an airport official, warning the dispatcher about the distressed plane. Then came about a dozen more after it crashed along Military Trail near Glades Road.
“I know this is a really strange call,” a caller said right before the plane went down. “But has anybody else called in about this plane?”
She told the dispatcher it was flying “way too low.”
Latest on Boca plane crash: Victims were headed to Florida State for teenager’s college visit
Another caller, right afterward, told the dispatcher something had just dropped from the sky and that there was “a big accident.”
“It looks like there’s a plane that crashed,” a fourth caller said, according to the report, released April 15.
Eventually, the operator was asking callers if they were calling about the plane crash as soon as calls were answered and that help was on the way.
“Was that a plane?” one caller asked. “I just saw a giant explosion.”
One final caller described the scene in detail to the dispatcher.
“There’s black smoke billowing off the side of the highway,” she said.
Investigators examine a small plane crash that killed three people on Military Tr. in Boca Raton Friday April 11, 2025.
The plane was a six-seater Cessna 310, and it was in the air for about 10 minutes before crashing, killing all three passengers onboard.
They were identified by Boca Raton police as Robert Stark, 81, of Boca Raton; and Stephen Stark, 54, and Brooke Stark, 17, both of Delray Beach. They were traveling to Tallahassee to visit the campus of Florida State University, where Brooke Stark was thinking of attending college. Stephen was Brooke’s father and Robert her grandfather.
The crash did not directly hit anyone on the ground, but it forced a northbound driver of a 2017 Toyota Prius, Pablo Tafur, 24, to swerve and hit a tree, police said. Tafur, who suffered minor injuries, was able to exit the car and find safety.
NTSB is leading an investigation into the Boca Raton crash. The standard procedure for NTSB is to issue a preliminary report within 30 days, followed by a 12-24 month report that will offer final analysis and probable cause for the crash.
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Jasmine Fernández is a journalist covering Delray Beach and Boca Raton for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at jfernandez@pbpost.com and follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @jasminefernandz. Help support our work. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Boca plane crash: Police release 911 calls from Florida accident