According to early reports about Wednesday’s accident, an air traffic controller spotted smoke coming from the airplane shortly after takeoff. The pilot, Edgar Wong, reportedly tried to return to the airport, but didn’t make it. “You could hear it sputter, and puffs of smoke were coming out the back,” Danbury Police Officer Robert Madore, who was directing traffic nearby, told local reporters. “It came right down …There was a boom, and then a huge cloud of smoke.” Robert Hayner, a worker at a nearby FedEx station, found the wreckage upside down in an icy stream, and saw Wong struggling in the water. He waded in to help. Al Orne, his boss at FedEx, joined him and the two pulled the man to shore. Wong was taken to Bridgeport Hospital for treatment of burns. “I just hope that if something happened to us, that someone would be there to do the same,” Orne said. Wong is an instructor at Danbury Flight School.
…And A Dramatic Rescue…
Key Takeaways:
- An airplane piloted by instructor Edgar Wong crashed shortly after takeoff from Danbury Airport, with eyewitnesses reporting smoke and sputtering from the aircraft.
- The pilot attempted to return to the airport but the plane went down, landing upside down in an icy stream.
- Two FedEx workers, Robert Hayner and Al Orne, rescued Wong from the water and pulled him to shore.
- Wong survived the accident and was taken to the hospital for treatment of burns.
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