4 in critical condition after plane crashes in N. Calif.

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 11:23 AM PT – Saturday, October 16, 2021

Four people are hospitalized with severe burns after being pulled from the wreckage of a small plane in Northern California. A witness confirmed that all victims are alive, with one male being life flighted due to a broken leg.

Sacramento County Fire officials said the plane went down near a private airstrip on Thursday. The plane landed in the front yard of a home where it sparked a small vegetation fire that was quickly extinguished.

Steve Scharf was driving by when he witnessed the crash and jumped into action trying to help those trapped inside.

“I saw the plane take off and it was super tail heavy. So, I came driving down the road right here and the plane flipped around, came flying, skidded through this lady’s front yard and crashed into the front gate right here in the trees by the front gate,” he said.

ON FIRE: Four people are in critical condition with burns after they were pulled from an airplane that crashed in a front yard in in Sacramento County, California. https://t.co/2mPxzxkX4y pic.twitter.com/noo3A8SIj4

— ABC News (@ABC) October 15, 2021

Scharf said when he came upon the scene, three of the passengers, a pregnant woman and two teen boys, had already escaped. However, the man he assumed to be the pilot was crawling from the wreckage in flames. Scharf told the man to roll away from the blaze and used his fire extinguisher to douse the man.

All four victims are expected to make a recovery, including the woman and her baby.

One aviation expert looked at cell phone footage taken of the crash saying the plane appeared to take off without enough speed. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will be working together on the investigation.

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