Fontainebleau Owner Jeffrey Soffer Survives Deadly Bahamas Helicopter Crash

A helicopter ferrying Thanksgiving guests to an uber-exclusive Bahamas resort went into a tailspin yesterday, killing one passenger who was flung from the aircraft and injuring four others in the crash landing.Among the survivors: Jeffrey Soffer, the Miami mega-developer who owns the Fontainebleau Hotel...

By Tim Elfrink

November 23, 2012

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A helicopter ferrying Thanksgiving guests to an uber-exclusive Bahamas resort went into a tailspin yesterday, killing one passenger who was flung from the aircraft and injuring four others in the crash landing.

Among the survivors: Jeffrey Soffer, the Miami mega-developer who owns the Fontainebleau Hotel.

The helicopter crashed at the luxury Baker's Bay Golf and Ocean Club on Great Guana Cay around 1:30 p.m. yesterday, the Nassau Guardian reports.

Five passengers were on board the helicopter, which was based on a yacht the group had been traveling on. As the craft came in for a landing, a gust of wind sent the helicopter spinning out of control, witnesses tell the Miami Herald.

"They got into an air pocket and it went into a tailspin. It recovered, and then it went into a tailspin again and from there it hit the ground. The tail came off and the cabin just went into a spin and somebody got thrown out," an anonymous employee from the hotel tells the Herald.

The passenger killed in the crash hasn't been identified, but Soffer was among the survivors. He reportedly walked away from the wreck without serious injuries, but was being evaluated at a Miami-area hospital today.

Soffer's company, Turnberry Associates, bought the iconic Fontainebleau back in 2007 before sparking a massive renovation.

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Tim Elfrink is a former investigative reporter and managing editor for Miami New Times. He has won the George Polk Award and was a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

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