Pilot saved before train rams crashed plane
The pilot of a small plane averted death twice in a span of minutes, first when he crash-landed onto railway tracks, then when Los Angeles police rescued him just before a commuter train smashed into the aircraft.
Bodycam video showed the officers working furiously to disentangle the bloodied pilot from the cockpit of the crumpled Cessna 172.
“Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!” someone yelled as the officers dragged the man away seconds before the Metrolink train, its horn blaring, barrelled through the plane.
The single-engine plane had engine failure during take-off on Sunday from Whiteman Airport in the San Fernando Valley community of Pacoima and went down moments later, police Captain Christopher Zine told reporters.
The plane ended up on a railway crossing in an intersection near the airport and close to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division station. Officers were quickly at the scene.
“I had requested Metrolink to cease all train activity, but apparently that didn’t happen,” Sergeant Joseph Cavestany said.
Officer Christopher Aboyte initially stood by the plane trying to keep the pilot, who was seated, conscious and alert.
Then, bells and flashing lights signalled an oncoming train, Officer Robert Sherock said.
“We looked and sure enough there was a train headed right for us at full speed,” he said.
Officer Damien Castro told KNBC-TV that training and experience kicked in.
“When things like that happen you kind of just go and do it,” Castro said. “You don’t really have much time to think.”
The bodycam captured the sight and sound of the train blasting through where the pilot had been seconds earlier.
“I think this guy needs to buy a lottery ticket ’cause he pretty much cheated death twice within 10 minutes,” Sherock told KNBC.
The pilot was the only person on board and was taken to a hospital for treatment. He was not identified and no other injuries were reported. Metrolink services were halted and road traffic diverted about 32km northwest of downtown Los Angeles.