Florida Firefighters Attend To Plane Crash

March 17, 2006
Amazingly, nobody was hurt

An eyewitness has quite a story to tell after he heard a plane crashing in his backyard, which is near the Sanford airport.

The plane clipped several trees and crashed into a greenhouse. Even after all that, the two men onboard didn't get a scratch. The student pilot and his instructor walked away with zero injuries.

Seminole County firefighters even called it remarkable that they got out of it unharmed.

"All I heard was a loud bang. It shook the whole house," Ben Poloski said.

He was watching TV when the Cessna dropped out of the sky into his backyard. A couple hundred feet more to the right and it would have been in his family's house.

"Ran to the door and I hit my head on the glass. When I looked out, I was like, 'Oh my God!'" he said.

By that time, other neighbors ran to the plane to help. Later, a HAZMAT team stood ready, maybe in case of fire or just to contain the fuel.

Seminole County deputies said the Cessna, which flies for Delta's Connection Academy at the Sanford International Airport was practicing touch and goes. On the last one, the pilots said, they lost all power. The instructor took over and tried to put it down in the field.

That's when a wing clipped several trees and the Cessna slammed into the greenhouse.

"I think they did a remarkable job by saving their lives, number one, and missing injuries, number two," Poloski said.

The owner of the plane is with a company called T and D Ventures out of Pierson in Volusia County. They train with Delta's Connection Academy. When Channel 9 talked to him, he was just glad to hear everyone was okay.

Copyright 2006 by wftv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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