3 people and a dog survive plane crash near Miami-area airport

A small plane crashed after takeoff near Miami Opa-locka Executive Airport on Tuesday morning, landing upside down in a grassy swale next to a canal and some train tracks.

Its four passengers survived with non life-threatening injuries. Three of them were human.

The fourth: Sugar, an 11-year-old golden mixed breed, who was taken from the crash scene on a stretcher and driven to the Broward Animal Hospital by a good Samaritan.

“She had some injuries to her paw and a small laceration on her forehead,” Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokeswoman Erika Benitez said of the surviving canine. Sugar was carried from the crash scene on a stretcher by fire-rescue personnel.

The three others, two men and a woman, aboard the Piper PA32 were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Their identities were not released. Benitez said two of the people were airlifted, the other taken to the hospital by ambulance.

Benitez said at least one of the injured was out of the plane when fire-rescue arrived shortly after the 10:38 a.m. crash. She said none of the injuries appear to be life-threatening.

The plane went down in the 500 block of Burlington Street between a canal and train tracks.

Interim Opa-locka City Manager David Chiverton said the plane crashed inside the small city shortly after takeoff and that none of the injuries appear to be serious. He didn’t know where the single-engine plane was headed. Chiverton said the Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the accident.

This story was originally published December 1, 2015 at 3:49 PM with the headline "3 people and a dog survive plane crash near Miami-area airport ."