Witnesses sprang into action to help a Bluetown pilot escaping a fire that destroyed his cropdusting plane.
Wilfredo Castro-Zamora will never forget a fire that destroyed a cropdusting plane and left it's pilot burned.
It all happened at an airfield off U.S. Highway 281 and Muñoz Avenue just outside Bluetown around 10:45 a.m. Friday.
Castro-Zamora he came from Ccoahuila to buy a used plane from the pilot.
The plane had just landed and was getting ready to take off for another mission when the engine caught fire.
Castro-Zamora said the pilot came out of the cockpit on fire.
That's when Castro-Zamora and others sprang into action.
“I
ran with the water hose,” Castro-Zamora said in Spanish. “I put out the
fire on him and I tried to put out the fire on the plane but there
wasn’t enough water pressure.”
La Feria firefighters arrived at the scene and extinguished the fire.
Fire Chief Rick Garcia said investigators are still trying to determine what caused the blaze.
"As
per the witnesses, they lifted a panel inside the aircraft when they
realized smoke coming from the fuel silage from in there somewhere and
then it just caught fire,” Garcia said.
Castro-Zamora said the flames and black smoke stretched more almost 100 feet into the sky.
“Flames and black smoke,” he said in Spanish. “A tire exploded when the oil caught fire. A black smoke was coming out.”
Castro-Zamora said nobody else was injured in the accident.
The Cameron County Fire Marshall’s Office is investigating the incident.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials said they will also be investigating.
Source: http://www.valleycentral.com
Source: http://www.valleycentral.com
