A propeller plane crashed into a parking lot near Nail Addiction salon and Mama's Daughter's Diner in Plano, causing panic among shoppers.
Elzie Monroe McDonald, 87, crashed his Mooney M20 plane outside a strip mall in Plano, Texas, while flying home for Thanksgiving, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
According to his family, McDonald had been just a few days away from his 88th birthday when the sad accident occurred.
To have Thanksgiving, he flew to the Dallas area to visit them.
At the moment of the event, McDonald was attempting a go-around. This is an unsuccessful landing effort in which a plane goes back up as it approaches the landing.
Instead, the plane fell into the parking area, exploding in a dreadful flame.
The single-engine plane went down near the nail addiction salon, almost leading to the loss of an employee, according to video from the incident.
Thankfully, the employee was not physically injured in the incident, but it did have an emotional impact on him.
The salon owner told NBC5: "He’s safe but he’s mentally affected.
"He and his wife couldn’t sleep last night. I and my wife couldn’t sleep last night, either. Everyone is still very shocked from the incident."
Nancy Procaccini, owner of Mama's Daughters' Diner, was also affected by the crash and struggled to sleep after the incident.
She said: "I love my staff. And I love my customers dearly. And it was just so close.
"You know, you could picture yourself being almost in a wreck and it’s like, you can almost feel like you were hit. That’s the way it felt for me."
She added: "If it would've hit just a few more feet, I had people sitting right there: Children, mothers, I had one of my staff members, been with me 35 years sitting there.
"That's what gets you. When you've got so many people in your house—mama's house, that you love."
Witnesses claimed to have heard a loud explosion and seen the aircraft's right wing droop before it crashed.
Elzie Monroe McDonald was the sole occupant of a single-engine Mooney M20 aircraft. The plane crashed near Air-Park Dallas Airport, a non-traffic control tower-free airfield.
McDonald, an Arizona native, has been awarded the Master Pilot Award by the FAA, recognizing his 50 years or more of safe piloting.
The plane crash also caused a fire in a nearby car, but no one was inside.
"I was trying to get out the door and I actually watched the camera myself and I just pushed this man out of the way and I went out there and couldn't get very far out the door, because flames were flying, and just came back in and told everybody to get out and call 911," Bowers recalled.
After the sad incident that left the restaurant empty on Wednesday, employees at Mama's Daughters' Diner expressed gratitude for their safety and condolence to the pilot's family.
Procaccini, obviously moved, carried flowers to the crash scene in memory of the pilot.
"I hate to be so dramatic and poetic about it, but something happened, where this one man sacrificed his life-- I don't know what happened in that plane, I just know that it missed our building and missed the nail salon right next door," Procaccini said.
"I have the opportunity to feel that love today that I… really needed,' she said,
"Yes, it's still emotional. I don't think I've stopped crying."
