One person was killed after a small plane crashed off Elliot Key Sunday afternoon.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that a small four-seat Cessna 172 crashed into the water near Elliot Key around 3 p.m.
Miami-Dade Marine Patrol units responded after receiving a 911 call and boater radio call and found the plane submerged in the water.
Divers responded and recovered the body of a man inside the plane, officials said. Police later identified the man as 51-year-old Ricardo Laporta Barboza, from Coral Gables.
"The guy just plummetted straight in, no deviation in the motor, no fluttering of the wings, it was like he was a kamikaze war pilot going straight down," witness Tom Romanowski said. "It happened so fast that I mean actually, we blinked sitting in the water, looking around, we never saw it coming and straight down, straight into the water."
Homicide investigators are investigating the death and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
Stay tuned to NBC 6 and NBC6.com for updates.
