Just ‘Lucky,’ Says Laguna Hills Dentist Shot on Plane

A Laguna Hills dentist said Monday that he feels “extremely lucky” to be alive after being wounded when a bullet pierced the commercial airliner in which he was flying as it was about to land Sunday at Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

In a telephone interview from his home in Dove Canyon, near Rancho Santa Margarita, Edward C. Wright, 42, described the head wound he received in the Sunday incident as superficial.

“I feel pretty good, but there is an emotional letdown from all the excitement,” he said. “I feel good, and I feel extremely lucky.”

Accompanying Family

Wright, a periodontist, had been accompanying his wife, Barbara, and two teen-age daughters on their way back to Orange County from a weeklong vacation in the Bahamas. About a minute from landing at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, where they were to change planes for the flight to Los Angeles, a bullet entered the USAir de Havilland aircraft, ricocheted at least once and struck Wright on the head.

“I felt a loud popping noise as we were about to land,” he recalled Monday. “I felt what appeared like a firm rap to the back of my head. It projected my head forward. There was no pain or discomfort. I was stunned.”

He said he rubbed his head where the projectile hit and felt blood, but even then he had no idea that he had been hit by a bullet.

“I thought something had come loose and fallen and hit me on the head.” He felt so unconcerned that he did not want to interrupt the flight attendant who was giving the passengers their landing instructions.

But when a nearby passenger found the bullet lying on the cabin floor, Wright said, “I felt a little queasy.”

Wound Cleaned, Bandaged

On the ground, Wright was taken to nearby Broward General Medical Center, where his superficial scalp wound was cleaned and bandaged. He was returned to the airport and interviewed by Broward County Sheriff’s deputies in time for him and his family to make their connecting flight to Los Angeles.

Al Gordon, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, said Monday that the FBI has joined the investigation into who fired the shot at USAir Flight 4343 and whether it was intentional.

Gordon said the bullet had been sent to a crime laboratory to determine its type and possible information on the angle of entry.

“My own feeling is this is off the wall, a random thing,” Gordon said. “It’s never happened before.”

Wright said deputies found a bullet hole in the other side of the plane a few rows in front of him. It entered through the lower part of the emergency exit door. From there it ricocheted at least once before it grazed Wright’s head.

Wright said the incident would not stop him from taking future vacations or flying in planes.

“What it did do,” he said, “was made me take a long breath, pause and reflect.”