Two teens who crash landed at a Wichita golf course are out of the hospital.
The owner of the plane says the engine failed Friday afternoon, forcing the 17-year-old pilot to make an emergency landing at the Tallgrass Golf Course.
Despite concussions, broken bones, and scrapes and bruises, both Andover High School seniors involved in the plane crash say they're doing well.
"As far as plane crashes go, how I'm feeling - it's pretty good. Thankful for that," said Christian Dell, the pilot of the plane.
Christian was flying, and his girlfriend Nicole Klusener, 18, was passenger.
The two teens saved up money to rent the M20C-Mooney for a trip to Nashville over spring break.
They were almost home when something went wrong.
"The whole flight, it was pretty noisy. We had headphones on but it was still loud. And then it just went silent. Like the engine just stopped and we were just like, oh no," Nicole said.
"So I decided we were going to make it to the runway. I turned back and there was just no way we were going to get there," Christian said.
Christian had to think quickly.
"He was trying to talk to the tower at Jabara, and said, 'We just had an engine failure, we have an emergency landing on the golf course. We missed the house, and we almost hit the house, and we clipped the top of a tree I think, and we landed on the golf course there," Nicole said.
"He opened the door and was pushing me out a little and we were just crawling around and we had no idea what kind of state we were in. And the ladies from some of the houses came up and told us their names and that we were going to be okay," she said.
The owner of the plane says the way Christian responded is likely what saved their lives.
"In talking to the pilot and looking at the airplane, you can see that the pilot did everything right," said David Dewhirst, president of Sabris Corporation and owner of the plane. "The praise should go to the pilot for the manner to which he handled this emergency," he said.
"It was pretty much just all training. I don't really remember much from the approach. It all just kicked in," Christian said.
Both Christian and Nicole say they feel lucky.
"There's definitely that, 'it's never going to happen to me.' But it did. We're just glad nobody else got hurt and we were fortunate enough to walk away," Christian said.
"That could've happened 5,000 feet in the air, and we would've had no chance probably. But it happened when we were getting ready to land on the runway. So we were already getting lower to the ground and slowing down. God was watching over us for sure," Nicole said.
The FAA and NTSB are still investigating what caused the plane's engine to fail.
The owner of the plane is still working with insurance companies to figure out the best way to remove the plane from Tallgrass Country Club.
(culled from www.kwch.com)
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