2 people are seriously hurt when the Cirrus SR22T aircraft goes down on Bishop Ranch, on the north side of the freeway
As Debbie Gantt was driving up Storke Road to get on Highway 101 on Wednesday, headed to Trader Joe’s to pick up a few items, she saw a small airplane flying very low.
The single-engine aircraft was in a steep bank, Gantt said, with its wings almost vertical to the ground.
“Then I saw the parachute go out, and that’s when I realized it was going to crash,” she told Noozhawk on Friday.
The aircraft dropped out of sight before she made it to the freeway.
However, as she headed down the onramp, which spans the distance between Storke and Los Carneros roads, she saw that the Cirrus SR22T had gone down in a grassy field on the Bishop Ranch property, on the north side of the freeway.
She pulled over at the base of the Los Carneros offramp, figuring to call 911, but another motorist already was doing so.
So, using her phone, she took photos of the downed aircraft.
“I got a picture before it caught fire,” the Goleta resident said, then moments later watched as the plane burst into flames, which spread to the nearby vegetation.
A Cirrus SR22T is engulfed in flames shortly after it crashed Wednesday in Goleta. The injured pilots are barely visible in the foreground.
“Then I saw a man crawling, trying to get away,” she added.
She heard an explosion, and noting that emergency personnel already were on the scene, decided it was time to get away.
“I was in shock for several hours afterward,” said Gantt, who grew up in Goleta and works in retail. “My adrenaline was really pumping. I walked around Trader Joe’s like 10 times trying to remember what I came for.”
Officer Pulled Pilot Away From Burning Aircraft
CHP Officer Ricardo Ayala was in the process of citing a motorist for a traffic infraction on Los Carneros Road in Goleta when an explosion rocked the air.
“Startled, he looked up to see an aircraft’s ballistic recovery system deployed,” said Officer Jonathan Gutierrez, who recounted his colleague’s experience.
“He observed the plane’s deployed parachute.”
The four-seat aircraft had crashed just north of Highway 101 between Los Carneros and Glen Annie roads.
Ayala let the motorist off with a warning and rushed up the freeway toward the scene. He could see the plane, which was nose down, bent in half and engulfed in flames.
“He spotted movement and observed the severely injured pilot crawling out of the aircraft,” Gutierrez said. “The fire was spreading rapidly and threatening to consume the wreckage entirely.”
Ayala sprung into action, clambering over a chain-link fence and racing up the hill toward the burning wreckage and imperiled male pilot.
“He grabbed the pilot’s arms and pulled with all his strength, dragging the injured pilot away from the growing flames,” Gutierrez said.
Just as they stumbled a few yards to safety, a second explosion erupted behind them.
Meanwhile, a female occupant of the plane had managed to get herself out of the wreckage and was helped to safety by a civilian bystander.
Both victims — a 29-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman — suffered major injuries and were taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
Their names have not been released by authorities, and details on their conditions were not available.
