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Witnesses Rescue Plane Crash Victim Near Gasparilla Island

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By KATE SPINNER

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: August 29, 2008

BOCA GRANDE - Three men doing construction work on a beach-front deck helped rescue a pilot whose small plane crashed into the ocean just offshore today.

Law enforcement officials did not identify the survivor, the plane's lone occupant. He was taken to a Charlotte County hospital in stable condition.

At about 11 a.m., the single-engine plane approached the water, barely audible, as though the pilot intended to land on water, said one of the workers, Eric Stone, 31, of North Port.

But seconds later, when Stone and his co-workers ended their break, the plane crashed about 100 feet off the Gasparilla Island coast, Stone said.

Stone said he immediately called 911 and watched a man climb out of the cockpit, onto the wing of the sinking plane. The man waved his arms and yelled, but was facing away from the beach, apparently unable to see.

Another worker, Troy Powell, 34, jumped into the water to rescue him, while Stone's brother, Patrick Stone, 28, grabbed a surfboard from the home's garage.

When the two men reached the pilot, the water was up to his neck. They put him on the surfboard and guided him to shore.

The man told his rescuers that he had gone blind and thought he might have had a stroke.

Stone estimated the crash victim's age at about 60.

Paramedics took the pilot to Charlotte Regional Medical Center, where he was in stable condition, according to a press release from the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office did not identify the pilot, but said the plane was registered in Punta Gorda.

Stone said that if he and his co-workers had not been working in Boca Grande, on Gasparilla Island's southern tip, Friday morning, the crash might have gone unnoticed.

"Where we were working there's nobody at the beach. All the houses adjacent have the hurricane shutters up," Stone said. "And it wasn't like the crash made excessive noise."

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