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Victoria plane crash: Witness jumps in to save pilot involved in damaging crash

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Published  December 11, 2024 10:39pm CST
Texas
FOX 26 Houston

Victoria plane crash: Man steps in to help pilot following crash

Five people were involved in a crash involving a plane and three damaged vehicles in Victoria on Wednesday.

The Brief

    • Tony Poynor was on a business trip in Victoria when a plane crashed near him, hitting multiple vehicles and leaving several injured.
    • Despite the risk of explosion, Poynor rushed to the crash site, helping a bloody, but conscious, pilot and assisting injured victims, including a woman with serious facial injuries.
    • In a shocking twist, despite the wreckage, no one was seriously burned, and Poynor managed to ensure safety until EMTs arrived.

VICTORIA, Texas - Imagine driving on the feeder road of a busy highway and you see a plane about to crash. That was Tony Poynor's day on Wednesday while on business in Victoria.

He admits he's lucky he survived and could help the injured.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Victoria plane crash: 4 people injured, pilot still being evaluated; FAA to investigate

"I heard a plane, sounded like a Cessna over the top of me, and I'm thinking, 'Man, it sounds really low," said Poynor. "And then it started to waver, and rock back and forth, and I'm like I'm going to keep going forward. It sounds like it's going to crash."

When the plane crashed, it hit three vehicles.

VIDEO: Dashcam shows plane before, after crash

Dash camera video provided to FOX 26, courtesy of Tony Poynor, shows an airplane flying low in the sky before it crashed in an intersection of Victoria.

"Parked my car, ran up to the pilot to see if he was ok. He was still strapped in, but at an angle," Poynor said. "I unstrapped him, tried to get him out of there, but the doors were blocked. He was OK, bloody, but conscious, but he was fine, 70-to 80-year-old gentleman."

Poynor went to help the woman most seriously injured 

"Her face was bloody, her hands were bloody, the EMT's started working on her," he said. 

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The plane flipped one car onto its side.

Plane crash in Victoria (Photo courtesy of Tony Poynor)

"He was the only one that was fine," said Poynor. "Don't know how he was fine, because his car flipped over. There was a lady in a black car here with a passenger that was pregnant. She was in shock. She would not leave the car whatsoever. The EMT's came, they took over at that point."

What was going through Poynor's mind?

"Hearing that plane, I thought it was going to crash on me," he said. "The next thing I was worried about was the plane going to explode. That's when I looked around and saw gasoline on the ground. There's no smoke smell at all, which I was amazed nothing was on fire. Nothing was burning. I felt safe enough to go talk to the lady underneath the wing."

Did the pilot talk to Poynor?

"He said, ‘hey’. He was probably in shock, ‘my boss is really going to be mad at me,’" said Poynor.

The Source

  • FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace spoke with one witness who captured the plane crash in Victoria on Wednesday. 

TexasNews