EAST LAMPETER TWP., PA – Lafayette Fire Company, Assisted by Eden Rescue 2-4 and Witmer Tanker 4-10, responded to a plane crash at 2018 Old Philadelphia Pike, Saturday January 28 at 5:50 p.m., injuring the four passengers on board.
The initial dispatch by Lancaster County Wide Communication advised there was a reported small passenger plane down in the area of Route 30 and Route 340. The call was reported directly to the 911 center from the air traffic control tower at Lancaster Airport.
The airport tower advised there was a plane circling the crash site. The Airport Tower was basing the location on the last known radar position.
After contacting the tower by radio, the pilot tried to land the plane in a field near Old Philadelphia Pike. Instead, the plane crashed into a vacant barn at 2018 Old Philadelphia Pike.
After the plane crashed nose-first through the roof of the barn, rescuers searched the area near The Oaks housing development, not knowing where the small craft had come to rest.
One of the first people to find the crash victims, Timothy William Severe of the 300 block of Oak Thorne Lane, heard and felt the crash. There was no explosion, just the sound of splintering timber and crushing metal.
Severe grabbed a flashlight and jumped over fences in the fields between his house and the barn, heading toward the site.
“Can anybody hear me?” Severe called into the darkness, but he got no response.
Severe said he walked around to the back of the barn and in the beam of his flashlight saw a woman lying on the ground and three men walking near one of the barn’s sliding doors, behind which the plane rested on its nose. “I don’t know how they lived,” Severe said.
Lafayette Engine 6-3-1 arrived and found a small single engine Piper Warrior II nose down into a barn. The tail of the plane was visible through the top of the roof and the cockpit was visible in the open left door of the barn.
A heavy odor of aviation fuel was present in the area, a highly volatile and more flammable than normal jet fuel. Engine 6-3-1 advanced a hand-line to the rear of the barn and set-up for foam operations. Firefighters covered the leaking fuel on the barn floor with a blanket of foam.
Lafayette Engine 6-3-2 secured a water supply from a supply line stretched from Old Philadelphia Pike and supplied Engine 6-3-1.
Additional specialized units were requested to assist with at the incident.
A laddertower from Eden Fire Company was requested and was utilized to disable the aircraft's emergency locater transmitter from the tail section of the fuselage at the roof level of the barn. An FAA investigator used the bucket of the truck to take aerial photographs of the wreckage
Lancaster County Hazardous Materials Team was also requested due to the leaking fuel and the plane would require de-fueling after the incident was under control.
It was later determined that the fuel load on board was only about 1 gallon. The remaining fuel had leaked out.
A light tower generator was also requested from Highville Fire Company to illuminate the rear of the barn where the plane had crashed.
After the patients were in care of EMS and the scene secured, firefighters awaited the arrival of the FAA and Civil Air Patrol to conduct an investigation.
"It's hard to believe (the pilot and passengers) survived,'' Bob Stoll, a Cumberland County-based investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration said of the accident. "It's really unbelievable."
Stoll took photographs of the wreckage and gathered information before a large crane removed what was left of the aircraft.
The plane was then taken to a hangar at Lancaster Airport, Stoll said.
Investigators will analyze all the data before determining what happened. Stoll estimated the process would take about three months.
Assisting Lafayette firefighters were Ronks, Eden, Haz Mat 2, Lancaster Emergency Medical Services Association, the Civil Air Patrol, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the FAA.
Incident command for the incident was Deputy Chief Paul Frymyer and incident operations was performed by Lieutenant Scott Hershey.
Passersby were instrumental in helping the pilot and passengers out of the aircraft.
Witnesses watched the pilot struggle to control the foundering plane. The plane banked sharply with one wing down before it crashed.
Witnesses reported seeing the pilot struggle to control the aircraft before it went down, it was flying smoothly though losing altitude. The plane was gliding without engine power when it fell out of the sky.
The Berks County couple, along with their son and a foreign exchange student, were returning from a day trip to Cape May, N.J.
Pilot Donald Belsky, 51, was in fair condition, and his wife, Diane Belsky, 52, of Womelsdorf, was listed in critical condition.
Their son, Matthew Belsky, 21, and a 16-year-old foreign exchange student, whose name police would not release because of his age, were treated and released from the hospital, according to a nursing supervisor and East Lampeter Township Police Sgt. Brian Cloonan.