‘A miracle.’ Neighbors marvel that no one was killed in North Texas military plane crash
Residents of a Lake Worth neighborhood where a military training plane crashed were reeling Monday from what seemed like a highly improbable event — and from the reality that it could have been much worse.
The small plane — a Navy T-45C Goshawk jet trainer aircraft — crashed into a Lake Worth residential area shortly before 11 a.m. Sunday, according to the Lake Worth Police Department. The crash took place about two miles north of the Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth.
The two pilots — an instructor and a student — ejected from the plane before the crash; one landed in a wooded area and the other got caught in power lines and was shocked and burned, Lake Worth police said.
The instructor pilot was released from a local hospital Monday, the Navy said in a statement. The student pilot was still in serious condition and receiving treatment for his injuries at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, the Navy said.
A resident who lives on Dakota Trail, close to a doughnut shop near where one of the pilots landed, told the Star-Telegram on Sunday that he ran toward the pilot who had gotten caught in the power lines and saw him on fire before paramedics arrived.
“Although badly burnt, the pilot was conscious, alert and breathing,” Lake Worth police said in a news release.
Three residents also sustained minor injuries, Lake Worth police said in a Sunday evening update.
But because the plane crashed into the back yard of a house, instead of into the house itself, no residents were killed or seriously injured. Lake Worth police called this “a miracle.”
By Monday morning, some military and emergency personnel remained in the area investigating and assessing damage, and both ends of Tejas Trail were still blocked with bright orange barrels.
The residents of the home where the plane crashed were displaced from the house, authorities said. On Monday morning, yellow tape stretched across the front porch posts and in front of the garage. The back yard, visible from the driveway, was piled with charred debris that barely resembled an aircraft.
Tony Scarbrough, who has lived on Tejas Trail for about a decade, said he was standing in a neighbor’s front yard when he heard an explosion and saw the plane heading down a little ways away. Then he saw something come sailing through the air toward them.
“Just something big and black,” he said.
It was one of the ejector seats, he realized afterward. It landed near the driveway and then bounced once or twice before coming to a rest one house away. On Monday morning, the seat sat in the road, partially hidden under a translucent plastic sheet and cordoned off with yellow tape that read “hazardous materials.”
Emmanuel Ramos, who also lives a few houses down from where the plane struck, said he heard a loud boom and then saw neighbors running down the street. He went outside and ran toward the crash site, too, worried for the residents of the home and their dog, which he said was usually in the back yard.
When he got to the house’s iron gate, he tried to grab it so he could run into the back yard, which was engulfed in flames. But the gate was burning hot, he said.
“As soon as we tried to reach over for the gate, it was too hot,” Ramos said.
Ramos said the only thing he could make out was the tail of the plane in the flame-filled yard.
It turned out that the dog had been inside the house at the time of the crash, according to several neighbors, who said they helped the residents of the house get outside and away from the fire.
They took the residents across the street to Mary Dreadin’s house, several neighbors said. Authorities have said they’re assisting the family, and that two other homes were also damaged in the crash, while others were affected by smoke and surrounded by debris.
Dreadin has lived in her home for more than 50 years. She and her husband were driving home from the grocery store when the plane crashed. When authorities told them they couldn’t drive down their street, she worried that it was her home that had been hit.
“It’s bad enough it’s the neighbors, but it could’ve been my house,” Dreadin said. “And, thank God, a miracle happened that it wasn’t on top of their house.”
David Coon, who lives in the same home as Scarbrough, said the plane could easily have landed on their house.
“We’re definitely blessed. Another second, it would’ve been our house,” Coon said.
The neighborhood is in an area designated by the military as an “accident potential zone” because of its location near the Fort Worth military base. Police said Sunday’s coordinated response by local agencies “undoubtedly saved lives and many homes.”
Because planes have been flying over the neighborhood daily for decades without incident, Coon said he isn’t worried about another crash. Scarbrough, though, said he’s a bit nervous.
And, with her house a bit closer to the crash site, Dreadin said she was also feeling on edge.
“To know that it’s that close, and to know the people it happened to and that they’re not going to be able to be home for several days,” Dreadin said, “I know it shouldn’t traumatize me, but it did.”
Authorities have not yet released the identities of the pilots or the reason for the crash, or given a timeline of when that information may be released. The plane had been on a “routine training flight” from Corpus Christi International Airport, according to a Sunday statement from the Navy.
Navy personnel were on the scene again Monday and, by late morning, had consolidated much of the crash debris to the front yard of the most-affected property.
Cleanup efforts could last as long as a couple of weeks, a Navy on-site coordinator said Monday evening.
John Baxter, the civilian overseeing the collection of debris and environmental recovery for Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southwest, said all debris from the aircraft should be cleaned up within the next couple of days. The environmental portion of the process will take longer, though, he said.
The biggest environmental concern is the jet fuel, Baxter said. In the following weeks, the Navy will excavate soil in the crash area using special instruments designed to help crews locate jet fuel that has contaminated the ground. Once all the fuel-contaminated soil has been removed, they’ll send samples to a lab for testing.
If tests confirm the soil is no longer contaminated, fresh earth will be brought in to leave the ground as it was before the incident, Baxter said.
Crews will have to be careful and precise during the cleanup precise, as the aircraft’s remains will be essential in determining what caused the crash. While Baxter said most of the debris is in a compact area around the crash site, orange and pink flags marking pieces of metal, plastic, rubber, canopy glass and parachutes were scattered across a field near Ole Donuts in Lake Worth, about a half mile from the final crash site. All of that will have to be collected as a part of the investigation and cleanup.
Sue Brink, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southwest spokesperson, said the area around the intersection of Tejas Trail and Foster Drive will be cordoned off for the next few days. She said her team is working with residents to ensure they have access to their homes and parking.
After seeing the crash site, Baxter said the crash was a lucky one.
“An aircraft came down in the back of several people’s homes and nobody was killed and that is a miracle,” Baxter said.
He said he and his team appreciate the support and cooperation from neighbors as they work through the cleanup and investigation.
Authorities said that residents who come across crash debris should not touch it or attempt to remove it, but should instead contact the Lake Worth Police Department at 817-237-1224.
This story was originally published September 20, 2021 at 12:12 PM.
