Cayman sad after plane tragedy

The Cayman Islands community is still coming to terms with the sad news of two Cayman residents dying in a plane crash on Monday.  

Alexander Wurm, 53, and his daughter Serena, 22, were headed to Montego Bay, Jamaica to deliver aid for victims of Hurricane Melissa when the 1976 Beechcraft King Air plane Wurm was flying crashed into a lake in Coral Springs soon after they took off from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

Wurm was the founder of Ignite the Fire Ministry, a Cayman based Christian evangelical group that works across the Caribbean. He had already flown four trips last week between Cayman and Jamaica before going to Fort Lauderdale on Friday.

Wurm departed Owen Roberts International Airport in Grand Cayman, with strong support from local churches, the Wurm Family Foundation, and civic groups. The plane was packed with medical supplies, generators, solar panels, battery packs, tarps, and sophisticated communications equipment, including a Starlink system.

The aircraft’s first flight from Cayman to Montego Bay, distributed goods in collaboration with Youth With A Mission (YWAM Jamaica), Crisis Response International and the Ministry of Health & Wellness. Wurm posted the mission’s impact on social media: “Ignite is excited to fly generators, screws, tarps, battery packs, StarLink comm. systems and other desperately needed supplies to help rebuild Jamaica tomorrow!”

Church leaders and community supporters in Grand Cayman contributed valuable cargo, restoring connectivity and hope to remote Jamaican communities devastated by category 5 Hurricane Melissa which passed through Jamaica at the end of October.

According to a post to his personal Facebook page on 2 November, Wurm, an experienced aviator, had only recently purchased the plane. “It can carry a lot and it is a very reliable aircraft. Perfect for the mission to bring relief goods into Montego Bay and the plane is ready just in time,” he wrote.

 “We are in absolute shock and disbelief,” said Sean Malone, the director of Crisis Response International, an aid agency with which Wurm had been working, in a video statement on Facebook.

“When this hurricane happened, he didn’t hesitate – he sprang into action and did what he could with what he had in his hand. He saved lives and he gave his life for the people of the nations that were on his heart.”

Wurm is survived by his wife, Candace, daughter Christiana, 20 and son James, 17.