PALATKA, Florida — The son of an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper helped save a pilot who crashed in a Florida pond earlier this month.
Connor Cvetan and his classmate, Chris Shields, are both students at an aviation and aerospace school named Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Cvetan, whose father is OSHP Lieutenant Craig Cvetan, and Shields were flying in Palatka, which is about 45 miles east of Gainesville when they heard an emergency call over the radio from an 81-year-old pilot on March 14.
The distressed pilot experienced engine failure at 800 feet.
The two aviation students reached out and tried to get him to land in a nearby empty field or a road, but ended up in a pond after running out of altitude.
“When I saw the plane touch down into the water, my heart sank,” said Cvetan, who is from Bremen in Fairfield County. “Our first thought was to try to contact the pilot. No luck. That’s when we determined that calling Jacksonville [air traffic control] was the best option."
Cvetan and Shields got the coordinates of where the crash was located and provided updates to the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard over the radio while circling above the crash site.
The aircraft was floating in the pond and the pilot was able to get out of it. However, he could not swim to shore because of a large alligator in the water.
A Navy helicopter was able to get the pilot out of the water and flew him to safety.
For Cvetan, he said the flight training helped prepare him for an emergency situation like this.
“Sometimes, I feel as if a lot of us pilots get desensitized to flying,” Cvetan said. “It was a surreal moment and, fortunately, the pilot was safe. The rest of the day didn’t quite feel the same. I’m sure this situation will come up in an interview with a company in the future, and it feels nice to know we helped another pilot who was in danger.”
The pilot did not suffer any injuries from the crash.