A flight instructor was seriously injured, and an off-duty police officer sustained injuries after a training aircraft crashed into a tree in a residential area of Philadelphia on Wednesday afternoon.

Aircraft Loses Power, Crashes in Fluehr Park

The Piper Pilot 100i plane, owned by Fly Legacy Aviation, went down in Fluehr Park after reportedly losing power. Alex Souponetsky, the general manager of Fly Legacy Aviation, expressed shock at the sudden power failure. “This is our first accident,” he told local news. “We have 30 flights every day. We have a fleet of 24 airplanes. We have over 200 students with thousands of graduates.”

Investigation Underway

Souponetsky stated he has no idea what caused the plane to lose power. An eyewitness described the survival of the two occupants as a “miracle,” reporting they could hear one of them “screaming in pain.” Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson noted the crash could have been far worse if it had occurred in a more populated area.

Both the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are investigating the incident to determine the cause of the crash.

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