Survivors of Tuesday’s plane crash in Texas spoke out about their harrowing brush with death, revealing that after the aircraft carrying 21 people ran off a runway, everyone rushed towards the exit and escaped down an inflatable evacuation slide before a raging fire consumed the wreckage.
Everyone on board the McDonnell Douglas MD-87 transporting a group of baseball fans from Houston to Boston survived, with only two sustaining minor injuries.
Passenger Cheryl McCaskill, who lives in the Houston suburb of Cypress, told the Houston Chronicle that she felt ‘shaky and shocked’ after running from the burning jet in her Houston Astros jersey.
‘When it finally stopped, everyone went “get out, get out, get out.” We jumped out on that inflatable thing and then everyone went “get away,”’ McCaskill said.
‘I lost my shoes,’ the woman added.
Cheryl McCaskill was among the 21 people who survived Tuesday’s plane crash in Texas
The McDonnell Douglas MD-87 plane with 18 passengers and 3 crew members on board crashed near Katy, Texas, Tuesday morning
All 21 people survived the fiery crash, with only two people suffering minor injuries
McCaskill was among 18 passengers who were embarking on the 1,600-mile journey from Houston to Boston to cheer on the Astros as they faced the Boston Red Sox in Game 4 of the AL Championship Series.
During takeoff, the plane rolled through a fence and caught fire at the Houston Executive Airport in Brookshire, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The plane was registered to an investment firm connected with homebuilding company executive J Alan Kent, who was on board
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board have launched an investigation, which will include examining the aircraft’s flight data recorder.
McCaskill said she heard the pilots say the ‘plane would not go up’ before the crash.
‘They ran out of runway,’ she added.
Another passenger, who did not wish to be identified, recounted for KHOU11 the atmosphere inside the aircraft as it rolled across a road and into a field.
‘Things were flying around. And when it finally came to a stop, they just told us to “Get out! Get out! And we unbuckled ourselves – and ran as far away as we could because we thought it was going to explode,’ the passenger said. ‘And we wanted to get as far away as we could.’
The youngest person on board the plane was a 10-year-old child, officials said.
The aircraft is registered to a Spring, Texas, investment firm that is connected to J Alan Kent, the president and CEO of Flair Builders, a custom homebuilding company.
Kent was on board the flight but was unharmed. He released a statement through his company on Wednesday, saying he was grateful that no one was killed or seriously injured.
‘Thankfully, everyone used the emergency slides to exit and make it to safety before a fire consumed the plane,’ the statement read. ‘There was a minor injury sustained by a passenger going down the slide but thank God that there was no loss of life.’
David Norton, an attorney who has been retained by Flair Builders, said Kent was shaken by the incident.
The 172-seast capacity jet failed to gain altitude at the end of the runway during takeoff from the Houston Executive Airport in Brookshire, officials said
The plane was said to be en route to Boston for Game 4 of the American League Championship Series
‘His main focus right now is to comply with the FAA and NTSB and their rules to make sure we are doing everything right,’ Norton told the Chronicle. ‘We truly have no idea at this point what happened or why it happened… I am sure that is going to get fleshed out over time.’
The 172-seat capacity aircraft with two jet engines crashed after it failed to gain altitude at the end of the runway, careened across Morton Road, coming to a rest in the field just north of the airport, where it caught fire just after 10am, officials said.
The plane was built in 1987 for commercial use and was converted into a private jet in 2015, complete with a bedroom, couches and conference tables.
Terence Fontaine, director of the aviation program at Texas Southern University and a former commercial airline pilot and pilot trainer, credited the pilots with helping avert a tragedy.
The pilots likely knew there was a problem too late to abort on the runway but before they took flight, he said.
‘They are going to be telling everyone to hit that L door,’ Fontaine told the Chronicle, referring to the primary door passengers use at the front of the plane. ‘From there it is a matter of how fast you can run.’
McCaskill, who was invited to fly with the group by her boyfriend, said she doesn’t plan to get on another plane any time soon.
‘I am done with it,’ she told the paper.
