Drivers on Interstate 5, along with several Marines, rushed to the rescue of three men after their plane crashed at Camp Pendleton Saturday night, just yards from the freeway.
The Cessna 172 crash-landed near a helicopter pad by Las Pulgas Road just before 6 p.m. on its way from Orange County to Montgomery Field.
An FAA spokesperson said one of the passengers in that plane was airlifted to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla in serious condition.
Another passenger, also with serious injuries, and the pilot were taken by ambulance to Mission Hospital in Orange County.
Witnesses said it's a miracle no one in the plane or on the ground was killed, when the single engine Cessna crashed a few hundred yards from the freeway.
Jeff Smith was driving southbound on Interstate 5 and noticed the wing on its side and ran over to help the men trapped inside. Smith, a pilot since 1996, said the plane was destroyed.
“I just asked if they were alive, that was my first concern.”
Smith said the pilot, a man in his 40s, had a broken wrist and was cut in several places.
The pilot told Smith that his engine went out suddenly. He attempted a short field landing, overshot, and crashed.
“Given the terrain and what he had to deal with right there, I think the guy did a pretty good job,” he said.
About a dozen witnesses stopped to help, many of them Marines.
"There were 2 Marines straight out of boot camp that held this guy over their head. He was a pretty hefty guy.”
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
