There was a small plane that crashed in the parking lot of a retirement community in Pennsylvania, and the pilot’s distress call was captured on the audio recording that was being used by air traffic control just before the crash.
At 3:18 p.m. on Sunday, March 9, emergency workers reacted to a crash that occurred in a parking lot in Brothers Village, which is a community for the elderly located in the town of Manheim, Lancaster County. Chief Scott Little of the Fire Department, along with a number of other officials, provided specific details regarding the catastrophe and the number of people that were injured.
Five passengers were the only ones who sustained injuries and were ultimately sent to a medical facility for treatment. Not a single person on the ground sustained any kind of injury. A press release that was published on Facebook by the authorities stated that there were no fatalities as a result of the incident.
The pilot reported that there was an open door and asked for permission to land, according to an audio clip that was just recently made public by air traffic control. On the other hand, communication appeared to be challenging. The pilot communicated with the Lancaster Tower, saying, “I am unable to hear you due to the wind; therefore, we will be returning to the 26th level.” This is a downwind direction.
After some time had passed, the air traffic controller made the announcement that the pilot was “free to land” on runway (26). But not long after that, the situation became even more dire. Subsequently, the air traffic controller could be heard adamantly commanding, “Slow down.” The Lancaster Tower Rescue Service, Division 1. The jet went down in the parking lot, among the trees, just outside the terminal where it was parked.
During this time, observers witnessed the airplane laboring before it went down. According to reports from CNN, Brian Pipkin is quoted as saying that the jet initially gained altitude, but then abruptly turned left and started to sink.
Running to the scene of the accident, he discovered that the cockpit was completely engulfed in flames. The heat, as he described it, was “like opening an oven that was heated to 500 degrees and when you open the door, it hits you in the face.”
As Pipkin moved closer to the ruins, he characterized the strong heat as being overwhelming due to its intensity. “I got closer and closer, praying to God that nothing would explode,” he said in his interview.