All day long, people have been driving to see the wreckage of the fighter jet that crashed at the Thunder Over Michigan air show at Willow Run Airport.
Among the many in attendance was the pilot in a back brace while he spoke to investigators who combed through the debris.
Local 4 spoke with the two men who helped pull the pilot and his co-pilot out of the lake after they had an emergency ejection from the aircraft due to engine failure.
Read: Officials: Engine failure caused jet to crash at Michigan air show; pilot was injured
“(The jet) it’s super close to the apartment,” said Bailey Driffor. “I don’t know how it didn’t hit it.”
Driffor could not believe his eyes as he’d only been watching the show for about 15 minutes when the pilots ejected overhead.
He said that once he saw them land past them, he picked up his phone and started recording.
“Instantly right when the dude hit the water, he came flying right to him, instantly,” Driffor said.
Mark Duff was the man behind the wheel of the boat that drove the co-pilot to safety.
“When I got over there, his head was just barely above water,” said Duff. “He was treading water (fighting with the shoot). I grabbed him, and he said, ‘Thank you. I felt like I was going under, and this is not the place to go under.’”
Duff helped the co-pilot onto his boat as Charlie Rowell and his friends were doing the same thing on the other side of Belleville Lake; they also saw the plane malfunction, the canopy coming off, and the ejections that followed.
“We didn’t stick around to see the airplane go down,” said Rowell. “We said, ‘We’re going right now.’”
Their boat transported the pilot to safety.
“He was visibly shaken, physically,” Rowel said. “I think he was in good shape.”
Rowell said the pilot’s biggest concern was where the plane landed and if anyone was hurt.
On Monday, the pilot got an up-close look at where his plane landed, himself.
“It’s absolutely remarkable that nobody on the lake, on the ground themselves, were seriously hurt or injured,” Rowell said. “To me, it’s a miracle.”
“Call it a miracle, call it what you want,” Duff said. “It’s amazing that everyone was safe.”
