SEFFNER, Fla. — Two people are alive after their small plane crashed off of South Parsons Avenue in Seffner on Thursday afternoon. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating what caused the Evektor Harmony light sport aircraft to plummet into the yard of a vacant home, landing upside down.

What You Need To Know

  • Hillsborough County Fire Rescue says a small plane crashed into a yard along South Parsons Avenue around 3:30 p.m. Thursday

  • Both people in the plane survived and no one on the ground was injured

  • Neighbors say they were first on the scene and helped get a man and woman out of the plane

  • The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating

Richard Bedford said he owns the property and confirmed with Spectrum News that no one lives in the house or was in the yard at the time, but he lives nearby and heard the plane coming down.

“It sounded like a big racket of tin, and we didn’t know what it was,” Bedford said. “So, my wife went outside and looked. Come back in, she said, ‘A plane just crashed in the front yard of the other house.’”

Bedford said by the time he got to the crash site, one of his neighbors was already there.

“I heard the fuel cutting off and some type of motor and watched it there. Then it started to plummet down and start spiraling,” said Dion Papas, who lives across the street from Bedford.

Video provided by a witness shows the plane falling to the ground, attached to a parachute.

Papas said he was installing speakers in his car when the crash happened, and he ran to Bedford’s yard to help.

“I seen a woman’s arm dangling,” said Papas. “So, I jumped the fence, ran over there and ripped the door. I went to grab her, but she was all wrapped up there and she’s like, ‘Oh, my arm, my arm, my arm.’”

“He got fixed in there and cut the gas off so there wouldn’t be no fires or leaks with the fuel,” Bedford said.

Papas said he also helped get the man and woman inside out of the plane.

“I asked him, ‘What do you think happened?’ He goes, ‘I don’t really know.’ He goes, ‘It just sort of cut off, some freak thing,’” Papas said.

There are houses all over the neighborhood, and South Parsons Avenue sees steady traffic. Bedford and Papas said the fact that the crash happened in the yard of an empty home and no lives were lost on the ground or in the plane is incredibly lucky.

“It’s like almost just the Lord stopped it and brought it straight down,” Papas said.

“I don’t know how in the world them people survived,” said Bedford. “They had an angel on each shoulder.”

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue stated the people in the plane were taken to the hospital.

The NTSB stated the plane will be moved to a facility where officials can further investigate what happened.