Pilots were 'in a panic situation' before crashing west of Boynton Beach

West Boynton: A muffled audio exchange, taped from a conversation with air traffic control, captures three pilots’ desperate attempts to land their failing plane in the dark.
“We are having problems. We need to land as soon as possible,” one man’s voice cut in and out as he spoke Saturday night to air traffic control officials at Palm Beach International Airport.
They tried to guide the men in the single-engine plane to Lantana airport — just four miles away.
“I don’t know if we can do that,” the pilot’s voice crackled over the radio. “We’re in a panic situation here.”
That was the last PBIA air traffic control heard from the Piper P-28.
Flight student Arjun Chhikara, 18, and his instructor Anders Selberg, 46, were killed instantly when their plane crashed on a green in the Quail Ridge Country Club off Golf Road. A third occupant, Chandrashekhar Godghate, 38, was rushed to Delray Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition.
Chhikara had flown several hundred hours since his first flight at the school in December, while Godghate was a new student. Both were from India.
“He decided to fly along to see the more experienced trainee at work,” Vince Taddeo, a dispatcher at the nearby Kemper Aviation flight training school, said. “Hopefully, he’ll be walking away alive.”
Taddeo was also listening to the radio the night of the crash. He recalls hearing one of the men saying: “We’re going down. We’re going down. We’re going for the road.” He said from what he heard across the radio it sounded like the engine power went out.
“Something must have gone awry. All pilots know a golf course isn’t a good place to land,” he said.
The planes get checked every 100 hours of flight time, about once a month, Taddeo said. Records show that the Piper P-28 had 93 hours of flight time since its last check, he said.
31/10/07 Rachael Joyner /South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, US