Pilot instructor details heart-stopping critical moments before Northeast Philadelphia crash
Philadelphia flight instructor John Aytch had just wrapped up a lesson on midair crises when suddenly, one of those exact scenarios happened and required a sudden emergency landing.
The flight teacher at Fly Legacy Aviation and his student are both alive and recovering after a crash into a Northeast Philadelphia park on Wednesday.
The Philadelphia police and fire departments, the Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies flocked to Fluehr Park in Torresdale on Wednesday afternoon after the plane made an emergency crash landing into a tree.
Aytch, 24, said he and a student flyer had to act quickly after their Piper Pilot 100i plane lost power over the Delaware River about an hour after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport.
Aytch said he took over the controls and realized they wouldn't be able to make it back to the airport, so he started looking for somewhere else to touch down.
"We had the river behind us for the worst case, there was I-95, but it was like a parking lot, like it usually is in rush hour," Aytch said in an interview with CBS News Philadelphia.
Then he quickly spotted an open field at nearby Fluehr Park.
"And I said, 'OK, this is where we're gonna put it down.' And then from there it was about putting it down as smooth as possible without damaging anything else," Aytch said.
Only about 20 seconds passed from the moment they lost power to the time they touched the ground. That part went OK, but the aircraft then slid and hit a tree.
The flight lesson started with some key scenarios, including what to do if the plane loses power, he said. Then that exact emergency happened.
"Really didn't have that much time to kind of be scared," Aytch said. "You just kind of default back to the training that you do ... it was just, 'OK, well like, what else can I do?'"
At the scene this week, Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson said everyone involved was fortunate — the people aboard the plane are OK, and it thankfully didn't come down onto any homes in the residential neighborhood.
"It's a miracle," one resident said.
Aytch said he and his trainee, who works as a police officer, are eager to get back to flying again.
"Once these little kinds of injuries subside, definitely getting back into the aircraft," Aytch said. "Even my student, he was like ... I'll see you soon, once we heal up, we're gonna finish it."
Both men are expected to make a full recovery.
Workers hauled away the damaged plane on Thursday. The FAA and NTSB are both investigating the crash.
