LEESBURG, Fla.,None — The pilot who crashed his plane into Lake Harris in Lake County told WFTV Wednesday what went wrong. Pilot Allen Dunlap Jr. said his engine ran out of gas, even though he had a whole tank in reserve.
AT THE SCENE: Pilot Rescued After Plane Crash INTERVIEWS: Witnesses Describe Crash, Rescue
Dunlap said he was doing well. Miraculously, he only suffered bumps and bruises in the crash and refused to be taken to the hospital.
Dunlap says he thanks God he's still alive. He spent 12 years and more than 10,000 hours building his plane. He's been flying it since 2003 with no problems until Tuesday night.
A Leesburg woman helped rescue Dunlap after he crashed his plane into a Lake Harris Tuesday night. Barbara Miller called for 911 and then immediately jumped into her boat after seeing the small plane go down around 7:15pm.
"When you hit, when you hit water like that, it's like hitting a concrete wall," Miller said.
Miller said she couldn't believe the pilot was still alive.
"He's a very lucky man," Miller said.
Dunlap agrees. He told WFTV he was on his final descent into the Leesburg Municipal airport, talking to air traffic control and going over his checklist, when his plane went down because of an oversight on his part. The "Long EZ" plane has two fuel tanks, and Dunlap said he forgot to switch to his second fuel tank.
Miller went out to the plane with Leesburg firefighter Art Hatfield. When they arrived at the crash scene, they met another boat on the water that was already helping pilot Dunlap out of his plane. Dunlap was alert and conscious.
"He was sitting in the plane. He seemed completely oriented to where he was," Hatfield said.
"He seemed a little bit in shock, but he seemed OK. We asked him if he was the only one and if he was OK and he said yes," Miller said.
Dunlap said he ran out of fuel and, with no time to make it to nearby Leesburg Municipal Airport, he crash-landed his plane into the lake as his engine failed. Dunlap suffered a minor injury to his leg and burns on his skin from the seat belts.
Officials said the plane had airbags in the wing, nose, and tail. SeaTow was called in and the tow took two and half hours once the airbags were in place.
"We had to move it at a very slow pace so not to rip the wings off," Captain Kerry Kline of SeaTow said.
The plane was leaking fuel and oil. There was a crack on the second fuel tank. SeaTow had to use an oil containment boon, like the ones used to clean up the oil in the Gulf of Mexico, to absorb the contaminants as they towed it to a ramp.
The plane is salvageable and Dunlap has plans to get it flying again, but he won't be able to repair his plane until the Federal Aviation Administration is done with its investigation.
Dunlap has been a pilot for 30 years. This was his first accident.
WFTV
