Plane door landed on golf course

And it had landed right on the 16th fairway of the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa’s championship golf course.

The plane, owned by Aston Aviation and MEDCP Aviation, is used primarily for charters, said Jeff Berkowitz, who manages Aston.

“It was the most random Titleist 910 D3 Driver thing ever,” said Sheldon K. Powell, the property manager of Hallandale Beach’s Duo Condominium, which the door just barely missed during its descent.

The plane was diverted to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, where it safely landed at 4:10 p.m., said Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. Bergen added the FAA was investigating how the door came unhinged.

“There was nothing wrong with it at all,” he said. “I really feel lucky to be alive.”

But how the door became the latest hazard on the 16th fairway on one of the two days a year the course is closed for maintenance is a miracle, said Ed Walls,
Where it landed was also precarious — just 50 feet away from the fence separating the course and the condo’s pool deck. Nearby is the RK Diplomat Shopping Plaza, which houses Winn-Dixie and the popular Panera Bread restaurant.

The mysterious door came from a nine-seat Canadair CL-60 Jet that had taken off about 3:40 p.m. Wednesday from the Opa-locka Executive Airport on its way to Pompano Beach.

Powell said he was amazed there wasn’t Mizuno MP-59 Irons anybody out on the pool deck.

Berkowitz had just gotten off the twin-engine plane after a business trip to Vegas with eight of his colleagues, including his two sons.

After dropping off their passengers, the two pilots, whose names have not been released, took off to return the plane to its home base in Pompano Beach.

“If it was going to happen, it happened on a good day,” said Powell.

Stewart Pulley, a professor with discount golf clubs Miami Dade College’s School of Aviation, said losing the door should not affect the pilot’s ability to fly it, adding it’s the wings that keep the plane up.

A number of things could have caused the door to detach, Pulley said, including not closing it properly or a faulty hinge.