A quick-thinking Good Samaritan rushed to help a pilot whose plane crashed into a forest preserve on Friday night in suburban Elk Grove Village.
The crash was reported at around 7 p.m. at the Busse Woods Forest Preserve located near Arlington Heights and Higgins roads. In a Facebook post, the Elk Grove Village Police Department said it was assisting Cook County Forest Preserve Police after a plane went down in the forest preserve. The pilot was able to walk away from the aircraft, which police described as a smaller corporate plane.
J&T Scanner posted a photo on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, showing a downed plane in a wooded area, cordoned off by caution tape, as firefighters worked on the scene.
Isaiah Grass, who was walking in the forest preserve at the time, said he was heading to his car when he heard a large boom.
"Our instincts were to start running toward wherever it was," he said.
After hearing from two bikers that a plane may have crashed, Grass rushed into the woods to see if he could help. Initially, he didn't see anything. But he eventually saw the wreckage.
"He [the pilot] crashed into the tree, his propeller everything was smashed up, his wings, everything," Grass said. "I ran into the branches and wanted to see if he was okay."
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The pilot handed his phone to the good Samaritan, who called 911 and stayed with him until firefighters arrived.
Grass explained that he heard no indication a plane was coming down - until the loud "boom."
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"You couldn’t hear a propeller, you couldn’t hear trees, all you heard was a tree snap and a boom, and that’s it," he said.
