BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. --
A vintage Beech C-45 from a flying museum crashed and burned in a rural area near the Boulder County line Thursday morning.
Witness said that the plane was coming in from the east when it clipped a few trees and slammed into the pavement at County Road and Niwot Road, causing its wheels and part of an engine to bounce off.
The plane then snagged a power pole, skidded into a field and burst into flames. The two men inside escaped with moderate injuries.
"One of the pilots climbed out of the side door. He then turned around and helped the other guy out. They were both a little burned and pretty bloody and beat up. And then, at that time, a helicopter who witnessed it from the air, landed right here on the road. And he ran over and we got the guys on the ground until the ambulance got here," said witness Jeremy Roff.
Roff said he is stunned that no one died.
"I was on the phone with 911 at that time and I thought they were burning to death. And the lady on the phone was just telling me to keep calm and let her know where we were at," Roff said.
The pilot was identified as 64-year-old Stanley Peterson of Boulder and the co-pilot and student is 52-year-old David Gianakos of Littleton. Both victims were being treated at Longmont United Hospital. Their conditions have not been released but Weld County authorities said they were suffering from head injuries and lower back pain.
"It's nothing like I've ever seen, for sure," said witness Peter Roff. "Out of nowhere, it just came dropping through the trees, belly first and it slid across the road."
The Weld County Sheriff's Department investigators believe that they were out on a training exercise when they experienced an engine malfunction and tried to land.
A helicopter pilot in the area told 7NEWS that he could see that the plane was in trouble when it flew into his path and he had to dodge it.
"They are very, very lucky," said Weld County Sheriff's spokeswoman Margie Martinez.
The crash occurred about 9:15 a.m. in rural Boulder County, just north of Erie.
The Beech C-45H, also known as a civilian Beech 18, is a twin-engine plane that was built in 1951. It was used in the 1960s and 1970s to transport mail.
The plane was registered to the American Airpower Heritage Flying Museum out of Midland, Texas. It had World War II paint on it, with a star insignia on its wings.
7NEWS has learned that the plane belonged to the Commemorative Air Force, a group that rebuilds old WWII planes so they could tour the country.
It was a museum aircraft that was deemed air-worthy, said Weld County Sheriff spokeswoman Margie Martinez.
But the antique plane was destroyed by the fire. What remains is mostly a charred metal shell. Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration were at the crash site Thursday and planned to haul the wreckage to the the NTSB hangar in Greeley.
The plane originated from Platte Valley Airstrip, located at County Road 39 north of Highway north of Fort Lupton. FAA arrived on scene and will conduct the investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating the cause of the crash.
Crews are worked for most of the morning to restore power outages caused by the crash. The roads in that area was shut down for the day.
