Officials said the Robinson R44 was on an instructional flight when it struck a vacant building near South Congress Avenue.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — A training helicopter crashed through the roof of a vacant Boynton Beach warehouse around 12:30 p.m. March 23, killing the instructor and student on board and drawing a federal investigation to a busy South Florida industrial strip.
The crash drew immediate attention because the aircraft went down beside active businesses in the middle of the day, yet no one on the ground was hurt. Federal officials said the helicopter was a Robinson R44, and follow-up reporting identified the flight as instructional. By March 30, the National Transportation Safety Board was still leading the investigation, and officials had not released a cause, a sequence of failures or a timetable for preliminary findings.
First responders were sent to the 3800 block of South Congress Avenue after people nearby heard a sharp boom and saw damage on the roofline of a large warehouse. Boynton Beach Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Matt Oxendine said crews found no survivors after getting inside the building, which officials described as vacant. He said there was no smoke or fire, a detail that made the first minutes more confusing because the wreckage was not obvious from outside. Neighbors at nearby auto shops told local television stations the impact sounded like a heavy object had crashed inside the building. One witness, Rhett Savidge, said he saw the maroon helicopter descending nose first before it punched through the lightweight roof. Another neighbor said the sound was so heavy it first seemed as if shop equipment had fallen. Inside the warehouse, broken piping sent water pouring down near the wreckage, adding to the sense of chaos as police and firefighters sealed off the area.
By the next day, officials had filled in some of the central details. The dead were identified as Alejandro Carrasco, 28, of West Palm Beach, the instructor, and Bryan Menna, 52, of Michigan, the student. Federal aviation information said the aircraft was registered as N478AT and belonged to Airmen Testing and Training Inc. in Lantana, a company tied to helicopter instruction in Palm Beach County. Authorities said the flight was instructional and confirmed that no one on the ground was injured. Those findings clarified who was aboard and what kind of flight it was, but left the biggest question untouched. Investigators still had not said whether the helicopter lost power, whether the pilot was attempting an emergency landing, or whether a control, rotor or engine problem can already be confirmed from the wreckage. Officials also had not described any final distress call beyond brief radio traffic that surfaced in local reporting.
The last known minutes of the flight have become a key part of the inquiry. Local stations that reviewed radio traffic reported that someone aboard said they were going to land in a field because something was wrong with the helicopter. Moments later, another person on the frequency repeated that there was a problem with the engine. Flight tracking cited by local coverage showed the helicopter had departed from the Downtown Fort Lauderdale area shortly before noon and had been airborne for roughly half an hour before it went down in Boynton Beach. That route carried the aircraft over a dense band of warehouses, repair shops and traffic lanes near Interstate 95. The building it hit was empty, a fact that likely prevented additional deaths or serious injuries inside. Fire officials said the aircraft crashed through a lightweight truss roof, and witnesses described the impact as sudden and steep rather than a slow, controlled descent. Even so, the public record still does not show exactly how much control the crew had in the last seconds.
The investigation has now moved into the slower procedural stage that follows many fatal aviation crashes. The NTSB is leading the case, with the FAA assisting. Investigators are expected to document the wreckage, inspect the engine and flight controls, review maintenance records, study the training history linked to the flight and compare those details with witness accounts and radio transmissions. Boynton Beach police later asked for cell phone, dashcam and security video recorded near 3850 S. Congress Ave. between 12:20 and 12:25 p.m., showing that authorities are still trying to sharpen the timeline on the ground as federal investigators handle the aircraft side of the case. By March 30, no agency had announced a preliminary cause. Officials also had not said when they expect to release the first formal summary, whether toxicology testing had been completed or whether any recent maintenance work on the helicopter has drawn special attention from investigators.
For the people who worked next door, the crash was first a noise, then a shock, and then a grim realization that two people had died only yards away. Angela Povio, who owns Master Auto Body beside the warehouse, said the impact sounded like a car had fallen off a lift. Spencer Winslow, who was inside the shop, said he first assumed it was ordinary body shop noise until people began shouting that a helicopter had gone down. Savidge told reporters he saw the aircraft dropping fast and believed it was out of control before impact. Oxendine said crews had to move carefully inside the structure because of the size of the building and the fuel at the scene, even though there were no flames. That mix of routine work, sudden violence and an empty warehouse left neighbors measuring the event not only by what happened, but by what did not happen: workers were nearby, traffic was moving, businesses were open, and yet the dead were limited to the two people aboard the aircraft.
As of Monday, March 30, investigators had identified the victims, confirmed the flight’s training status and ruled out injuries on the ground, but they still had not said what caused the helicopter to fall into the warehouse. The next public milestone is likely an early NTSB update or preliminary report.
Author note: Last updated March 30, 2026.