Civilians rescued the 32-year-old pilot after the plane landed onto a parked car. The civilians rescued the man at great risk to themselves because gasoline was leaking from the plane and could had erupted into flames. One police officer said that the gasoline was "jetting out like a faucet."
The plane declared an emergency while it was flying to Teterboro, New Jersey, in rainy weather. The plane was diverted to Northeast Philadelphia Airport and crashed about two miles from the nearest runway. The crash happened at about 1835 EST.
Citizens rushed to the aid of the pilot and quickly extricated him from the wreckage. One person cut the pilot's seat belt with a knife and others pulled the man out of the plane. One rescuer described the scene, "We gave him one good yank, then we carried him up the street as fast as we could to get away from that gas." The man was transported by EMS to Albert Einstein Medical Center with head and face injuries.
Emergency service officials said that this accident had the potential to be far worse, had citizen volunteers not assisted, or if the leaking gasoline had exploded into flames. A Philadelphia firefighter told ENN, "We can thank our lucky stars on this one....it could have been a nightmare."