Crime & Safety

Pilot, 2 Passengers Survive CT Crash in Plane Equipped with Parachute

Initial reports say all 3 walked away from the crash in Danbury.

A single engine airplane crashed on South Street near High Street in Danbury, CT, Tuesday evening, and the pilot and two passengers may have escaped with minor injuries.

Danbury Airport Administrator Paul Estefan said he talked to the pilot briefly, and the man said the plane experienced mechanical difficulties, and the pilot deployed the parachute.

The pilot said the three men were returning to Danbury Airport from Groton, CT. The Cirrus airplane is based in Danbury. Estefan said the investigation into the incident is continuing.

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Tyler Miskar of 38 South St., Danbury, was stepping out of his house for a cigarette when he saw part of a plane sticking out of a tree and he heard what he thought was a car crash. He called 911, and the operator said he had three calls already and the police and fire department were on the way.

"I heard the sirens," Miskar said. "I saw the plane in the trees."

Find out what's happening in Port Chesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The parachute was blowing in the cold wind, and city officials feared the parachute would pull broken tree limbs into nearby wires, so officials turned off power along South Street for more than two hours.

"If the parachute pulled the branches onto the wires, we'd have had a short and we could have had a much bigger problem," Estefan said.


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