The first girl took action when a 12-year-old girl crashed into a river in eastern Nebraska on Friday night, killing all three of them.
Paisley Fenner, who had never dialed a 911 before a fatal crash, issued the first warning to emergency services when the unfortunate Cessna 180 plunged into the Platte River in Fremont around 8:15pm. Ketv reported.
“It was like a boom and we could hear the impact it had when we landed,” Fenner told the local outlet.
“We went outside and it was like, ‘It’s an airplane.’ And my first instinct was to “call 911” at first. That’s my first instinct.
Fenner then described the tragic scene in which a neighbor loads an airboat, cuts up the dog, and assists in rescue operations when a shipwrecked aircraft floats in the water.
The young man said she is still dealing with the fatal crash.
“We were still in shock yesterday, and we were still shaking, crying, shaking,” Fenner told the outlet on Saturday.
“And today, it’s still the same, we’re still trying to guess what happened. I saw it on the news and things, the plane crashes, but I didn’t think it would happen in my backyard.”
The plane’s victims were identified as Jeff Bittinger and Randy Aemrain, 48, and Daniel Williams, 43, of Moundridge, Kansas. It was announced on Saturday.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Traffic Safety Commission will investigate Friday’s incident, the latest update on a series of fatal emergency situations over the past few months.
The cause of the crash is unknown.
