Victims of Florida plane that crashed while bringing aid to Jamaica are father and daughter Christian missionaries

Milena Malaver, Miami Herald on Nov 11, 2025

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A father and daughter on a humanitarian mission to Jamaica were killed when their twin-engine plane crashed in Coral Springs, Florida, according to an evangelical Christian ministry.

Alexander Wurm, 53, and his daughter, Serena, 22, were traveling to deliver aid to communities devastated by Hurricane Melissa when their small plane went down shortly after takeoff. The aircraft crashed into a lake behind homes.

In a Facebook statement, Ignite the Fire Ministry, the organization Wurm founded, confirmed the deaths.

“Alexander, known for his warmth and unwavering kindness, devoted his life to serving others — both through his actions and by sharing the gospel of Jesus across the globe,” the Cayman Islands-based ministry wrote.

Wurm, an ordained evangelist and pilot since 2005, founded Ignite the Fire Ministry to “empower youth through missions and evangelism across the Caribbean.”

He has traveled all across the world “where he tirelessly worked to bring faith, compassion, and support to those in need,” the statement read.

The evangelical missionary has been working with Crisis Response International, flying in resources to Jamaica at his own expense, said Sean Malone, CRI founder.

“We are in absolute shock and disbelief of the situation,” Malone said in a video statement adding that flying in relief supplies to Jamaica has had many “logistical challenges” that were aided by Wurm.

“He kept showing up over and over, repeatedly flying in supplies that we couldn’t get anywhere else here in Jamaica,” Ferrin Cole, CRI’s team lead in Jamaica, said in the video.

Serena joined her father on the plane to follow in her father’s footsteps, according to Ignite the Fire. The family is from Canada, but based in the Cayman Islands for their missionary work.

In one of his final Instagram posts, Wurm posed with an airplane and announced that he would be fly in generators, screws, tarps, battery packs and StarLinks to Montego Bay. He also announced the airplane they would be flying.

“Through my friend, Joe Casey @flycasey who is renown Aviator, and trains Christian Missionary Pilots, we found an older King Air with brand new engines,” the post read. “It’s a perfect missions aircraft.”

Wurm and his daughter died aboard a Beechcraft King Air, which came down behind a home in the Windsor Bay community and went into a lake. The pilot narrowly missed hitting homes in the gated Coral Springs community.

The statement from Ignite the Fire called Wurm “a man of prayer” who “gave so freely, not just of his time or money, but of his very self.” “He possessed an uncanny ability to break down the most brutal truths into something we could actually grasp.”

Ignite the Fire Ministry said Wurm is survived by his wife, Candace, and two other children, James, 17 and Christiana, 20.

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