Florida Man Identified as Pilot of Plane that Crashed in Plainfield-Area Subdivision

The pilot who crashed his plane into a Plainfield-Joliet subdivision has been identified as a Lake Worth, Florida man.

Garry T. Bernardo, 58, was pronounced dead on Bedford Drive at Hampton Court in Plainfield at 2:58 p.m. Thursday, according to Will County Coroner Patrick K. O’Neil. Bernardo was positively identified through his fingerprints.

The coroner had previously said it could take days or weeks to identify him. Preliminary results from an autopsy performed Friday showed the man died from injuries sustained in the crash.

Bernardo was the owner of the Piper PA-30 twin-engine plane that crashed into the residential neighborhood. He also owns American Jewelry and Gun, a pawn shop in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to a report from the Palm Beach Post.

“An employee at American Jewelry and Guns, near the intersection of North Military Trail and Southern Boulevard, declined to comment. A sign on the front door said the business was closed Friday morning ‘due to a family emergency,’” the report said.

Gunderson Funeral Home in Monoma, Wisconsin, is handling the funeral arrangements.

The crash occurred near Chestnut Hill Road and Bedford Drive in the Brighton Lakes subdivision, which has a Plainfield mailing address but is under the jurisdiction of the Joliet Fire and Police Department.

A house at 1812 Hampton Court that caught on fire from the crash was occupied by a woman and her dog, but both made it out unharmed, according to a report from the Chicago Tribune.

Initial reports indicated the plane struck the home, but Joliet Fire Department Battalion Chief John Stachelski said it appears the house fire was not from the plane striking it.

Joliet Deputy Fire Chief Ray Randich told Patch Friday that fuel from the plane caused the house to catch fire.

"The fuel tanks were ruptured from the force of the crash," Randich said. "When a plane comes down, the first thing that happens is the fuel tanks rupture."

Randich also said it's not believed the house was hit by the plane and that, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, the pilot was the only person in the plane.

A spokesman for the NTSB told the Chicago Tribune that the plane was a Piper PA-30, which originated from Florida, landed in Tennessee and was headed to Wisconsin. A phone message left on the NTSB's media line was not immediately returned Friday morning. It is unknown what caused the plane to crash, and an investigation could take more than a year to complete, according to the NTSB website.

Plainfield resident Mike Maksimik said there was a storm cloud overhead, and it was just starting to rain when the crash occurred.

“The plane appeared to move right out of the storm cloud,” Maksimik wrote on Facebook. “It's a gamble whether it was a lightning strike on the plane that killed (its) engine, but there was a definite crash of thunder before the actual boom from the explosion.”

His brother, Andrew Maksimik, said he was fishing at the time of the crash.

“I thought it was lightning or thunder,” he told Patch, “but it was this airplane flying overhead very low. It sounded like he was trying to restart his motor. It was coming down so fast.”

The plane skimmed the house, hit the ground and exploded, Maksimik said.

“I could feel the heat of it,” he said.

Maksimik said the crash point was on the sidewalk and that the explosion was probably what ignited the home.

“It wasn’t damaged on the roof or anything. It was probably 20 feet away from the home. The flames were so wide they ignited the plastic siding of the home,” he said.

Maksimik is a Dyer, Indiana, resident but was in the area visiting.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Daniel Alksnis