Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Training prevented disaster, pilot says

FORT LAUDERDALE - Pilot Charles Riggs says he only did what more than four decades of flying and service in the Vietnam War taught him to do when the left engine of his cargo plane conked out over a heavily populated area.

"We practice simulated emergencies. I don't really see us as heroes," Riggs told reporters Tuesday at Holy Cross Hospital, a day after he crash-landed a vintage DC-3 on a residential street and escaped the burning wreckage with his co-pilot and a passenger. "It's what I've been doing for 40 years."

Others, however, say it's a miracle that Riggs and co-pilot Charles Wirt were able to avoid hitting any houses or cars - and to survive virtually unscathed - in the fiery accident. No one on the ground was seriously injured, either.

Calling the pilots and passenger Hector Espinoza "amazing guys," Dr. John Limperis of Holy Cross Hospital said they deserve credit for saving perhaps dozens of lives by wrestling the stricken plane away from major buildings or streets. All three should be released in a few days, he said.

Riggs and Espinoza suffered ligament damage to their right knees and Wirt has a chipped neck bone and compression fracture to one vertebrae, doctors said. Espinoza has arm, wrist and ankle injuries.

Riggs said he noticed problems in the left engine almost as soon as the plane took off from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at 3:48 p.m. Monday. He and Wirt briefly considered trying to land on the beach, then realized they wouldn't make it that far - nor could they return to the airport.

Wirt said they quickly opted for Northeast 56th Street, north of downtown Fort Lauderdale, because it was quiet and wide, and has an abundance of tall palm trees they could run into to slow the plane's speed. Riggs and Wirt said the DC-3, built shortly after World War II, was stronger than many modern aircraft.

Riggs said that he had experience with crash-landings as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, when he was shot down more than once. After the aircraft made a thunderous impact and slid a short way, fire erupted. Espinoza, sitting behind the pilots in a jump seat, said he thought of his 11-year-old son, Kevin, and used his left arm to break out a hatch window above the cockpit.

"My first thought was my kid - I can't leave him alone," said Espinoza. "I'm feeling great because I'm alive, by the grace of God."

Wirt said that he was able to get out the co-pilot's window and that someone - he doesn't know who - helped Riggs. Moments later, the entire plane was engulfed in flames.

"I was very pleasantly surprised," Wirt said. "I thought we would at least take out somebody's parked car."

The cause of the crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.

[Last modified June 15, 2005, 00:42:08]