NEWS
Small plane crash lands in Montrose neighborhood
Tim Ciesco
MONTROSE, Colo. (KKCO) - Wednesday morning a small plane headed for Montrose County Airport lost power and made an emergency crash landing in a northern Montrose neighborhood.
It was a sight residents say they won’t soon forget.
Just after 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, this typically quiet stretch of Park Avenue between North 5th and North 7th was anything but.
Sharon Elam lives near the crash site and says, “It was so big I just assumed that it might have been a truck, like a semi...and then when I got out and I saw it was a small plane, I'm like whoa."
Officials say the small plane, a Navion One, was en route to the airport when it lost power.
As the pilot started to make an emergency landing, they say he was trying to avoid a car driving down Park Avenue.
Consequently, his left wing hit a tree and his plan sup right into the ground in front of a Sunday School building, barely missing a power line.
"The front of the plane looked kind of crumpled and one wing was gone and the other one was sitting up,” says Luke Gerstner, who works across the street from where the plan landed.
He rushed over to help the pilot who was the only person inside.
"Of course your first reaction and thought is that the man could be deceased,” he says.
But much to his surprise, the pilot only had a few minor injuries.
"The man said that he was alright, he was bleeding from the forehead and the nose, and he was shutting all of his fuel off,” Gerstner says.
Residents say looking at the mess the crash left, it’s miraculous that no one else was seriously hurt.
"Now that I know he's gonna be okay, it makes me feel a lot better,” Gerstner says.
Less than three hours after the crash the plane was removed from the scene and with the exception of some downed branches, debris and bushes knocked over, things were back to normal.
But residents say they’ll always remember this day as anything but. “That was definitely a shocker,” Gerstner says.
The pilot, Douglas Borgo, was taken to the hospital but was released a short time later.
The plane has been moved to a hangar at Montrose County Airport where NTSB agents will inspect it.
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