The pilot of the small plane that crashed off Alki Beach on Tuesday is sharing what happened. John Laporta says he was flying from Tacoma when he noticed a mechanical issue with the plane.
“Just north of there, I noticed that the oil pressure gauge was going down,” Laporta said.
He says he reported the issue to the Boeing Air Tower in order to come up with a plan for a safe landing.
“And I recognized as I was coming across that the oil pressure was continuing to go down. And I knew that I was not going to be able to go in backwards into Boeing,” Laporta said.
He says he had only two options at that point: either land in the water or potentially near a residential area, which he says could have been dangerous for many people.
“I may not have been able to land it all. It could have impacted and just killed unfortunate people as well as myself.”
He says that when the plane landed in the water, it was nose heavy and flipped over, which caused more panic in the situation.
“The problem was after the airplane impacted the water it went nose heavy and the tail up. And my full weight was on the seat belts. And when I tried to release the seat belts, I couldn’t and the water was flooding in,” Laporta said.
“So, I’m frantically trying to get the lap belt off. And I couldn’t do it. And then for whatever reason, the airplane rolled back down a little bit and I could get the lap belt off,” Laporta said.
“So, I reached up and got a gulp of air and then was able to reached down and get the shoulder strap undone. I knew the window was to my right, so I just went right out the window,” Laporta said.
He says that once he got to the window, a man was already at the wing of the plane trying to help. And once he got back to shore, a retired EMT checked on him, too.
“And there was a gentleman there that said, ‘give me your hand! Give me your hand!’” Laporta said.
After his ordeal, he is back in the air, still teaching people to fly and learn from an experience like his.
“If you have an emergency, how do you get out? The same way you got in or better? And that was going through my head as I was going down,” Laporta said.
He’s also thanking everyone who helped him get out of this scary situation as well.
“From the Boeing tower to the Seattle Police Department, Fire Department and to all of those people that came out to get me out of the airplane right away,” Laporta said.
He says he’s had many friends and family reach out to check on him, which he’s incredibly thankful for. He also wants to see the people who helped him out in the moment and thank them again.
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