“I never heard a plane — all I heard was this ‘boom’ crash.”
A witness captured the aftermath of a plane crash in Riverside on Feb. 27, 2017. (Credit: @rebel_time_dork/Instagram via CNN)
Riverside homeowner Dave Swinfard said he was laying on his couch at his home watching TV with one of his cats in his lap on Monday afternoon when, around 4:41 p.m., a Cessna 310 crashed into his den under unknown circumstances shortly after leaving Riverside Municipal Airport. The home, in the 6000 block of Rhonda Road about a half-mile northeast of the airport, was quickly engulfed in flames and one of two completely razed in the fiery incident.
Swinfard, who was home alone and about 15 feet away from the airplane's impact as he sat in his living room, said he had no idea what had happened but followed his instincts.
"I hear this massive ‘boom’ and my front house just caved in and I saw flames," he recalled. "I thought, ‘You know what? Time to get out of here.’ "
He immediately ran to open the front door but was greeted by whips of flames, which he said left only a small burn on his arm.
"I shut that door and went out the back. I finally made it out there," Swinfard said. "There was a lot of smoke so I opened up the door and called for my kitties, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t make it."
A Riverside home remained a smoking shell after a plane crashed into it on Feb. 27, 2017. (Credit: KTLA)
Swinfard, who grew up in the home and has lived there most his life, said he didn't comprehend until later an aircraft had crashed into it.
“With the airport being where it is it did flash in my mind, but when I finally got around front and looked I couldn’t see any plane so I didn’t know what it was," he recalled. "Somebody finally said that it was a plane.”
After assessing the damage, he said it appears the plane clipped his chimney, went sent it smashing into his den before skidding on to collide with the home next door as well.
After the brush with death, Swinfard said he's not in shock so much as happy to be alive.
"You know that saying, ‘All I have is the shirt on my back’? That’s me," he said. "That’s all I got.”
from KTLA http://ift.tt/2myzqyj
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