It was a very close call...
Around 9 p.m., I was completing some last minute shopping at the Armenian Golden Farm Market, when I heard over the loudspeaker that the store was going to close in 10 minutes. I hurried to the cashier's line to pay. Right in front of me, a young man was talking on his cell phone. I overheard him say something about a plane crash. Curious, I asked him, "Where was the crash?" Laughing, and obviously very amused, he told me a plane had come down just a few blocks away from the market at a residential neighborhood. I thought to myself, "These young men... Nothing is serious to them."
On my way home, I was distracted by a great deal of commotion – four or five helicopters hovering in the sky, police cars zooming by with sirens on, other emergency vehicles racing to the scene. Some of the street lights on Glenoaks Blvd., and the traffic lights at some intersections were out. Police had cordoned off streets leading to the crash scene. I turned on my car radio to learn about the crash. A small airplane had come down on a stretch of Glenwood Road near the old Grandview Cemetery, and it seemed no one was killed – I sighed with relief.
When I got home and turned on the TV, I learned the plane was a six-seater, single-engine aircraft on its way to Phoenix. The pilot had crashed the plane into the front yard of a home along the 1200 block of Glenwood, between Cleveland and Bruce, knocking down power lines before coming to a rest upside down. The 55-year-old pilot had extricated himself and walked away from the wreckage safe. There were eye-witnesses who had seen the plane veering down.
Luckily, besides hitting the power poles and cutting electricity to more than 1,000 homes and streets in the immediate area, no other damage or injury had been reported.
The paramedics had taken the pilot to L.A. County - USC Medical Center. He was released this morning, he had minor injuries. If I'm not wrong I think I heard in one point that when the neighbors went to the rescue, the pilot was laughing. Indeed, it was a laughing matter. I bet all the neighbors must be laughing with relief!
Yes it was a relief that nobody died. I have sometimes watched (part of) semi-documentaries about air-transport in Alaska and road-transports in winter in Canada, where I learned that the pilots have to learn to land on a highway - that can be an safe emergency landing done in the right way. One major problem is to take measure of speed and distance of cars on the road (preferably there are none, of course!) but the planes go 100-170 miles/hour and the cars much less.
ReplyDeleteThe pilot in the plane on the Glenoaks Blvd must have had many thoughts on air-wires, lamp posts etc.etc. which all can push enought so that the plane crashes into something - but if the speed has come down from 100mph to something near 30mph then his chances for survival are so much better when the plane is stopped by something solid! I think that the electric wires lessened his speed, and that is what saved him before the plane hit something and crashed into the yard! Wow :)
Regards/-Donald-