US pilot pulled from crashed plane moments before train smashes into it
- The man escaped death twice in a span of minutes after his Cessna 172 landed on railway tracks in Los Angeles after an engine failure
- Officers managed to disentangle the bloodied pilot just seconds before a commuter train, horn blaring, barrelled through the wreckage
The pilot of a small plane averted death twice in a span of minutes on Sunday, first when he crash-landed onto railroad 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 from Whiteman Airport in the San Fernando Valley community of Pacoima and went down moments later, police Captain Christopher Zine told reporters.
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Pilot of crashed plane narrowly survives death twice in a day
The plane ended up on a rail crossing in an intersection near the airport and just blocks from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division station. Officers arrived at the crash scene almost immediately.
“I had requested Metrolink to cease all train activity, but apparently that didn’t happen,” Sergeant Joseph Cavestany told CBSN Los Angeles.