ARCOLA, Texas – KPRC 2 News has obtained the 911 call of a witness to a deadly plane crash that killed an instructor and injured a student Monday in Fort Bend County.
Pilot Jimmy Johnson and student Nezabian Thomas caught a strong crosswind just after takeoff from the Southwest Regional Airport.
"Me and my instructor are trying to correct and after that we didn't have enough thrust to climb anymore, so the nose went down and next thing you know you've got three seconds, you hit the ground. It was at a pretty bad angle too," Thomas said.
In the 911 call, a man is heard describing the scene.
"There's a fire at Houston Southwest Airport. Right in the middle of the runway, a plane crashed and a guy came here and he's burned," the caller said. "We need fire, ambulance. We need fire trucks."
He can then be heard talking to someone else, asking him, "Was it just you in the airplane?"
The man then tells the 911 operator, "There's a guy in the airplane... it's burning right now. It's next to a building. It's next to another airplane that's going to blow up also."
From his home nearby, Francisco Roque saw the column of thick, black smoke and began driving toward it as he photographed it with his cellphone.
“I live right next door. I was headed out, and I saw the heavy smoke coming out of the hanger and grabbed my camera and started recording.” Roque said.
Thomas, 20, is in the Air National Guard and took up flying lessons in January as a hobby.
"It was a New Year's goal of mine to start flying," Thomas said in a phone interview with KPRC 2 News.
"He's a very safe pilot, so I never thought this could happen to him. How do you prepare for this?" said Johnson's wife, Benjie Sanderson.
Johnson, 68, worked for Houston Light Sport Aviation, a flight school based at the airport, and owner of the aircraft. Investigators said he had logged thousands of hours in the air. Thomas, they said, had flown five previous times with the school's instructors.
Sanderson said her husband loved to fly and loved to teach others.
"If he had to die unexpectedly, I really do believe this would have been his choice,” said Johnson’s stepdaughter, Mary Redwine. "I'm sure he regrets someone else was injured in the process."