2008-Jul-25 - Plane clips Ocean Ridge town hall before crashing nearby

As fuel gushed from the plane's punctured tanks, a transformer suspended above the power lines exploded in a shower of sparks butdidn't start a fire, officials said. Firefighters spread aflame-retardant foam over the spilled gas.

Beachgoer Jennifer Scalisi was walking toward a restroom when shesaw the blue-and-white Cessna careening toward the ground.

"His engines were clearly not on," Scalisi said. "It looked like hewas trying to come through here to land on the parking lot."

She turned to run back toward the water when she heard the planesmash into the road.

"It was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life," Scalisisaid. "It looked like it was going to explode right here."

Ten or 12 minutes passed before the man was freed from the mangledfuselage. He was conscious as firefighters worked, police said.

The pilot had not filed a flight plan and was operating on visualflight rules, said Kathleen Bergen, a Federal AviationAdministration spokeswoman in Atlanta. FAA records indicate theplane is registered to Jean P. Bayardelle, who listed a BoyntonBeach address that turned out to be a post office box. It wasn'tclear how Bayardelle is associated with Gillot.

The FAA is checking with its regional flight surgeon and nationalregistry in Oklahoma City today to determine whether Gillot had theproper medical certification to be at the plane's controls, Bergensaid.

Federal law requires yearly checkups for pilots with Gillot'srating, to keep certificates valid. Gillot's most recent medicalexam was submitted in July 2004, Internet records show.

On the streets of South Florida, Gillot was cited two dozen timessince 1997 for traffic violations ranging from speeding to carelessdriving, state records show. At least a half-dozen of thoseresulted in convictions, according to state records. In April 2006,he was cited for having an open container of alcohol while drivingin Palm Beach County, though adjudication was withheld.

A witness said the plane looked like it was going about 70 mph whenit shaved a piece off the tall white fa?ade of the new townhall, spun and wrapped itself around a concrete utility pole upsidedown. Paramedics rushed to the wreckage of the plane, on its backon the west side of A1A with its wings sheared off and debrisscattered in the roadway.

After the transformer exploded, traffic lights went dark on BoyntonBeach's east side. The crash knocked out power to 1,350 householdsand businesses. Workers restored connections for 85 percent ofthose within a half-hour. All but a few were back online by about4:15 p.m., Florida Power & Light Co. spokesman Ed Brennan said.

Ocean Avenue in Boynton Beach and northbound A1A south of OceanRidge remained closed for several hours, through rush hour.

A lifeguard at the nearby beach saw the plane approach out of thecorner of his eye.

"There was no engine power," he said. "He just stalled."

Later, in the shade of a tree near the beach, the lifeguard watchedfirefighters pick through the wreckage. "The way he hit, I can'tbelieve he's still alive."

Ocean Ridge Town Clerk Karen Hancsak said she and her staff, whoare working out of a mobile home while the new building is beingfinished, heard the plane approaching from the northwest.

"We could hear that something happened. It didn't make an explosionsound, but we could hear something happened.

"One of us could see it flying fairly low toward the building,"Hancsak said.

Staff writers Don Jordan and Kevin Deutsch and staff researcherMichelle Quigley contributed to this story.