Instructor, student killed in Miramar plane crash remembered as passionate aviators
Friends are remembering the student pilot and flight instructor who died when their plane crashed into a Miramar backyard Monday morning.
Police identified the two men Tuesday afternoon.
Miramar police spokesperson Tania Rues said instructor Antony Rolland Yen, 34 and student pilot Jordan Travis Hall, 32, died when the single-engine Aventura II plane crashed in a neighborhood just south of North Perry Airport at around 11:45 a.m.
Yen was last known to have lived in the Orlando area while Hall lived in West Park.
Brett Schneider, a friend and former student of Yen’s, said he considered him a mentor:
A friend of Hall’s, who identified himself as “Matt,” called him “remarkable.”
Jazmine Frisco, another friend of Hall’s, called him “courageous,” “ambitious” and passionate about flying.
“Anything that he wanted to do, he got it done,” Frisco said. “We talked about planes and him flying. I told him that I thought it was amazing. He did a YouTube video. He was always posting about planes. He was the kid that could light up a room.”
Airport personnel reported that the plane had been undergoing maintenance and had departed on a test flight shortly before it crashed.
Investigators believe the plane, classified as an experimental aircraft, was leaking fuel before it went down.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
Noon report:
Crews removed a plane that crashed into a Miramar backyard Monday morning.
Shortly before police identified the victims Tuesday, crews were at the scene removing the plane from the house.
Manyerenis Moreno and her 2-year-old son Tyler Flores were inside the home at the time. Moreno was back at the scene Tuesday.
“We still don’t know when we’re gonna have our house back,” she said.
Moreno said the crash still leaves her “speechless.”
“I’m alive and my baby is alive but we could’ve died,” Moreno said.
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