Healthcare worker sees plane crash, rushes to help pilot and passenger

ORLANDO, Fla. - A pilot maneuvered his single-engine aircraft over the top of a healthcare building and narrowly avoided the 408 and a pond before making an emergency landing on Monday night.

Chris Spacone tells FOX 35 News that he was walking one of his patients out the back door of AdventHealth Centra Care at Waterford Lakes when something overhead got their attention.  

"We just noticed a big dark shadow coming over our heads with no sound, just a big swooshing sound," Spacone said. "Then, I just saw it crash into the tree lines. It wasn't like an explosion, it was kind of just like a car crash, almost, just a bunch of metal crunching together."

Spacone called 911 as he rushed across the parking lot and into the grass to help.  

That’s when he saw a man climbing out of the aircraft.  

"He started walking towards me and then he turned around and said 'there's another one, let’s get him,' or I need to get him, so he climbs back into the plane on the right side and starts pulling the man or his colleague out," Spacone said.  

He says the second man was bleeding badly from the side of his head.  

"I was expecting arms to be broken or legs and stuff like that, but they were walking pretty fine and just kind of stumbling so I had… I was kind of… had my arms around the one guy because he was worse than the other," Spacone said.  

He walked both men straight through the back door of Centra Care to his doctor. 

It was quite the surprise to all of his colleagues who had no idea a plane had just crashed right outside their back door.  

"I said, 'There's a plane crash,' and that's it like that's all I could say. He looked at him and then she saw the guy behind me who's really messed up and then she got up like really fast, brought them to a bay, sat them down and then just kind of went to work on them," Spacone said.

Doctors and staff at the Centra Care triaged both men until ambulances arrived to take them to the hospital.   

Right now, the FAA is investigating what caused the single-engine Piper PA-28 to crash.