Bystanders who rushed to help passengers inside the small plane that crashed in Richmond, B.C., on Thursday are being hailed as heroes for their bravery.
Eric Hicks rushed to the accident site along with others who witnessed the tragic event. One of the people he rescued was Jeff McCord.
"We picked him up and we carried him off the side of the road," he told CTV News. McCord was sitting at the back of the plane when it slammed into Russ Baker Way.
McCord's wife Kim was near tears while speaking of her family's gratitude for Hicks and others who could have chosen not to help.
"We feel so grateful to those strangers who immediately ran to that plane and risked their life to save somebody else's," she said. "To us, there's just not a greater form of currency than putting your own life at risk for someone else's and that's exactly what they did with no hesitation."
Ron Rubuliak grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran towards the flames coming out of the plane's engine when he saw the crash.
"There were two of us and we were just trying to spray the engine down because we knew there was somebody else in the plane," Rubuliak said. "It was an inferno that was burning on the outside and none of us around really thought of that."
Survivor Carolyn Cross couldn't believe her eyes when people came to her aid.
"I remember a man in black. The ladies, I don't remember," Cross told CTV News. "There was a Chinese fellow with a rider cap who was riding a bicycle. He saved my back."
Pilot Luc Fortin was killed in the crash, while his co-pilot Matt Robic remains in critical but stable condition. The seven remaining occupants, all passengers, were taken to hospital with various injuries. Vancouver Coastal Health confirmed Friday that one remains in intensive care, four in serious condition and two others have been treated and released.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's St. John Alexander
