Survivor Recalls Plane Crash That Killed 3

J.D. Orozco will never know why he survived the plane crash that took the lives of a flight instructor and two of his friends this weekend in a sparsely populated area of Kern County.

All Orozco could do as he described his ordeal Tuesday was to mourn the loss of his companions and to give thanks for his survival. “Miracles still happen,” he said.

With his arms and head swathed in thick bandages, the 26-year-old freelance cameraman recounted at a Sherman Oaks hospital what happened when he and his friends flew out of Burbank Airport to have lunch with a friend in Bakersfield on Saturday afternoon.

One of his friends, identified by Orozco as Edison Concha, a former co-worker at Spanish-language TV network Telemundo, piloted the craft without incident for the majority of the flight. Along for the flight was Concha’s girlfriend, Tricia Kopp. The day, Orozco recalled, was clear, the weather calm.

Then, after the instructor took over the controls for landing, Orozco said, the four-seat Piper Cherokee stalled, then crashed, leaving Orozco hanging out of the aircraft with a seat belt wrapped around his ankle.

He struggled to free himself as he heard the crackling of flames. He scrambled from the wreckage and looked back. Then he heard Kopp’s anguished cries coming from the plane and realized he was unable to save her from the fire.

Badly burned but without broken bones, he stumbled a few hundred yards to the nearest road, where he flagged down the driver of a Winnebago who brought him to the local fire department. But the firehouse was empty--the firefighters had run off to the crash--so the driver took Orozco to the home of a local pastor. There Orozco called his mother and stayed until help arrived.

Late Saturday, Orozco, a San Gabriel resident, was admitted to the Grossman Burn Center of the Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center with what officials described as second- and third-degree burns over 25% of his body.

Meanwhile, the Kern County coroner’s office has yet to officially identify the victims, although Orozco named his former co-worker and his girlfriend.

According to Dr. Richard Grossman, a plastic surgeon who treated Orozco, the patient is making a quick recovery and should be released within two weeks.

Grossman said doctors placed cadaver skin on Orozco’s right ear, the right side of his neck and both arms. Doctors also used cultured skin, or skin cells grown in a laboratory, to treat the burns on his face.

“He is due for at least one more surgery and a skin graft,” said hospital spokesman Larry Wienberg. “But other surgeries and skin grafts may still be required.” Grossman added that he expects his patient will gain full or virtually complete use of his hands.

Orozco is just thankful to be alive.

“God has spared my life.”