By BRENDAN JANUARY
Herald & News

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS - Volunteer Lodi firefighter Keith Bruining was driving on La Salle Avenue Thursday evening when he saw the lights of an airplane pass over him.

"It looked like it wanted to turn," he said, "The plane was so low."

Bruining watched the plane as it pulled out of its turn and suddenly plunged into a densely populated Hasbrouck Heights neighborhood. A flash illuminated the homes, and an ugly fireball billowed above the crash site.

He pulled over, jumped from his car and ran to the burning wreckage in a back yard. There, he saw a scene he later described as "horrible, absolutely horrible."

The pilot had been thrown from the plane and was kneeling on the ground. He fell over, then sat up again.

"He was a ball of fire," said Bruining, "His hair and clothes had all been burned off."

The man screamed over and over again for help. Two others who had responded to the scene, Albert Kopec and Frank Armeli, helped Bruining drag the injured man to safety. A fuel tank suddenly exploded in a deafening roar, throwing all four to the ground.

"We looked at each other," said Bruining, who remained uninjured except for some minor burns, "and we started tending the pilot. He was mostly in shock."

People appeared from neighboring houses with blankets and towels. Bruining, Kopec and Armeli used them to beat out the flames. By that time, an ambulance had arrived, and burn sheets and saline solution were placed on the victim's burned and blistered body.

"I asked him if he was the pilot," said Bruining. "He had difficulty speaking... He said 'yes' and I asked him his name. He answered 'Al.'"

The man said he was worried about a woman still in the plane, whom he described as 30 years old. Bruining said that the pilot revealed nothing about the crash or what may have caused it.

The man lived another four hours, succumbing to the second-and third-degree burns that covered his body.

Three more bodies would be pulled from the smashed and charred airplane.