At 5 p.m. Sunday, Dr. Michael Russin, a well-known hand surgeon and amateur pilot, left Boca Raton Airport in his experimental single-engine plane. He was headed for Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport. It should have been just a short flight.
But by nightfall, his family still hadn’t heard from him. Just after midnight, they called the FAA to report him missing.
Shortly before 7 a.m. on Monday, they received bad news: Russin’s plane had gone down in the Everglades. According to the FAA, he had crashed half an hour after leaving Boca Raton.
The plane left at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday and crashed 30 minutes later about seven miles north of Interstate 75, east of U.S. Route 27, in unincorporated Broward County, according to the Sun Sentinel.
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash.
Russin’s brother, David, died last year.
The two had followed similar paths in life, both graduating from Tulane and going on to careers at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, where Michael worked as an orthopedic hand surgeon and David as an oncological surgeon. (Their father, Dr. Lester Russin, had been the hospital’s director of orthopedics from 1961 to 1977.) Both were members of Miami Beach’s Temple Beth Sholom.
Mount Sinai Medical Center issued the following statement in response to the news of Russin’s death:
“All of us at Mount Sinai Medical Center are deeply saddened by the unfortunate passing of Dr. Michael Russin. Michael enjoyed life and the practice of medicine. He and his family have a legacy of caring for patients at Mount Sinai. He and his twin brother, David, treated patients at our medical center for decades, and their father was once our chief of orthopedics.
Michael will be missed by the entire Mount Sinai family. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends and wish them comfort during this time.”
