Witnesses see plane nose dive to swamp

At first, he thought the pilot was doing maneuvers over a canal.

Within seconds, he realized it was a passenger jet and it was out of control.

As Muelhaupt, 27, and his chum from their University of Miami days, Rick DeLisle, watched in horror, the jet plummeted at a 75-degree angle. It smashed into the swamp, and the ground exploded.

``It was like a fireball of dirt and debris,'' said Muelhaupt, a Miami Beach real estate agent.

``Like a mushroom cloud,'' added DeLisle.
No blast of fire

The two men expected a blast of fire. It never came.

After a few seconds of shock, they called for help on their radio. Then they swooped down to look for survivors.

But they had trouble finding the crash site. DeLisle grabbed binoculars. They circled and circled over the swampland.

Muelhaupt lowered his plane to 200 feet before they spotted the debris amid the wetlands.

The only thing they saw that was intact, they said, was the jet engine. Everything else appeared scattered.

``It looked like someone had opened a garbage bag and tossed out all that was in it,'' said DeLisle, a Dade telecommunications executive.
No survivors seen

``We knew there were no people,'' Muelhaupt said. ``There was no movement.''

They radioed the control tower at Miami International Airport and gave directions to the crash site.

They had planned a leisurely trip to Naples, but decided to head home.

Muelhaupt and DeLisle weren't the only people to see the crash.

Sam Nelson and Chris Osceola were on a bass boat fishing on the L67 canal when they saw the plane falter.

``The plane was going when all of a sudden it just made a right turn,'' said Nelson, 52, of Hollywood.

``I don't know what it was doing. It looked like it was trying to go back up. It was pretty low. It kind of turned sideways, then it just nose dived, right down straight into the swamp.''
No way to help

They brought the boat to land and ran up onto the levee to look, thinking they could help.

``The last thing we saw was the tail end going down,'' Nelson said.

``Then it hit, and there was a big, big explosion. You could hear the motor, like it was under full power. That thing hit so hard you couldn't even see it.

``After the explosion went away, there was no smoke. It was like nothing ever happened.''