Brighten Your Day

Hero saves pilot and passenger after witnessing plane crash

September 24, 2012

Craig Schum is a true hero after saving the lives of two people who were involved in a recent plane crash near East Hampton airport in New York.

Pilot Steven Bochter was flying himself and his girlfriend to Massachusetts, but as the plane took off, the engine began to fail. Attempting to maneuver the plane back to the airport runway, Bochter lost control and the plane crashed into the thick woods.

Schum saw the plane go down while driving down the road. He immediately pulled his Jeep over, hopped a high fence and sprinted through the woods.

The pilot, who looked disheveled, was able to escape the plane but the passenger was stuck inside. Schum pulled the woman out of the plane only seconds before it burst into flames.

As a witness to the heroic act, John Kirrane went up to Schum to let him know how proud he was to meet him and see what he had done.

"This guy is an absolute hero,” Kirrane told reporters. “I went up to him after it all happened, with him covered in blood, and told him that it’s not every day that I meet someone who is willing to do something like he did. He did something special. It was unbelievable."