An ultralight airplane spun out of control Tuesday afternoon near Key Biscayne, killing the pilot and seriously injuring a passenger while the passenger's 11-year-old son watched the crash from a nearby craft.
Witnesses said the plane clipped a stand of pine trees before hurtling downward. The second plane was flying well above the tree line, they said.
''The plane came down at about an 85 degree angle and kind of corkscrewed,'' said Robert Maxwell, a bartender at the Bayside Seafood Hut. ``It hit right at the edge of the water.''
Restaurant patrons and employees rushed to a nearby skiff and motored out to the crash scene, on the edge of a nearby island. When they got there, the pilot was strapped to the plane and submerged under water. The passenger was dangling from his harness, just above the water, witnesses said.
''To me, the pilot looked like he was dead,'' said Juan E. Ginarti, a city of Miami marina manager who was part of the rescue party. ``He was totally motionless, and the plane was on top of him.''
Ginarti said rescuers hauled the aluminum craft out of the water and cut the pilot loose from his straps. He said they attempted to resuscitate him until paramedics arrived.
Ginarti's cousin, Juan A. Ginarti, said the pilot did not appear to be wearing a helmet, although the passenger was.
''I saw the helmet; it was cracked in half,'' said Juan A. Ginarti. ``That's what saved him. If the pilot was wearing a helmet, maybe he survives.''
Witnesses said the passenger, a man in his 40s, was coherent after the crash. He suffered a cut to his forehead and possibly a leg injury, they said.
The names of the pilot and passengers were not released Tuesday evening.
The outing began a little before 2:30 p.m. at Ultralight Adventures, located near the Rusty Pelican restaurant at 3401 Rickenbacker Causeway.
The father and son, tourists from Oklahoma, were passengers in a pair of ultralights.
Ignatius Carroll, a spokesman for Miami fire-rescue, said the pilot of the second plane told authorities the plane that crashed was flying too low and appeared to have some sort of difficulty.
Juan A. Ginarti said the plane appeared to be doing stunts, flying in roller coaster fashion before plummeting.
Maxwell, the bartender, did not observe such movements.
''They're always very safe,'' Maxwell said of the ultralight operators. ``I've never seen them fly near anything.''
Employees at Ultralight Adventures consoled each other and cried, mourning the loss of their co-worker. They declined to talk about the accident and closed for the afternoon.
Carroll said the pilot who died may have been submerged as long as 10 minutes. By the time paramedics reached him, he was in full cardiac arrest, Carroll said.
Carroll said the second plane, with the 11-year-old passenger, circled the crash scene until rescuers arrived.
''It's unfortunate for the boy he had to see it, but at least he was able to talk to his father while he was being transported to the hospital,'' he said.
The injuries to the passenger, witnesses said, did not appear to be life-threatening.
