Woman Rescued Just as Plane Ignites : Crash: Bystanders in Pacoima yank wing off and pull unconscious passenger to safety. All three aboard survive.

Bystanders who saw a light plane crash on a Pacoima street tore a wing off the craft and pulled an unconscious woman from the wreckage only moments before it burst into flames Saturday.

“They’re real heroes,” said Sgt. Bruce Cowan of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division. “If these people hadn’t taken that lady out of the back of the plane, she would have been killed.”

The plane had just taken off from Whiteman Air Park, less than a mile away, when the pilot radioed the tower that the engine had died, said Steve Christmas, tower manager. “There was nothing we could do except watch it crash.”

The red-and-white Cessna clipped an air conditioner on the roof of a plastics container company, lost a wheel, spun 180 degrees and then pancaked onto the pavement in the 13500 block of Paxton Street, witnesses said.

Mary Ann Hanley, 37, of La Crescenta, was discovered unconscious in the back seat of the plane after rescuers helped a male passenger get out, witnesses said. The pilot walked away from the wreckage, they said.

Among those who raced to the scene was Leonard Archibeque, a 29-year-old electrical helper for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, who was driving on Paxton Street.

“After it hit the building and spun around, it just teetered on the edge before it slid off and crashed,” Archibeque said. “I parked right away and helped them get the woman out. If we had gotten there a minute later, she would have been dead. That fire was boiling real good.”

Tyler Harwood, 29, of Northridge was asking directions at a nearby gas station when the plane crashed.

“We couldn’t get her out, so 15 to 20 of us let out a war cry and ripped the wing off by yanking it upward,” said Harwood. “It left a big hole and we dragged her out. Two seconds later, we heard this loud pop and the whole plane was in flames.”

Ibrahim Shariff, 42, of Panorama City, who had been riding his bicycle to meet a friend, said the bystanders had little time to plan their rescue.

“It wasn’t something we discussed--we just saw the cabin filling with thick, black smoke and the flames getting closer and we acted,” he said.

None of the three occupants of the plane were seriously injured, said Holly Lyons, a nursing supervisor at Holy Cross Medical Center. Hanley suffered a concussion. Passenger John R. Wilson of Burbank suffered a broken ankle while the pilot, Harold Leroy Wessel, 53, of Sun Valley, was treated and released for minor cuts, she said.

Wessel told police that he was flying to Mammoth for the weekend, Lt. Maurice Rubio said.

The cause of the 9:22 a.m. crash is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Adminstration and the National Transportation Safety Board, FAA spokesman Tony Ina said.

Seven fire engine companies put out the blaze in eight minutes, Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief Bob Teachenor said.

A one-block stretch of Paxton Street, where the burned-out plane lay in the eastbound lane, was closed all day between San Fernando Road and Sutter Avenue, police said.