Three Good Samaritans Honored For Helping Victims Of Pompano Beach Plane Crash
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POMPANO BEACH (CBSMiami) – There were a lot of people who ran to help the victims after a plane crashed into a home in a Pompano Beach neighborhood and landed in two other yards in late April.
Tuesday night, three of those Good Samaritans were singled out by the Pompano Beach City Commission for their quick thinking, selflessness and for acting with compassion.
Mayor Lamar Fisher honored Cynthia Kopenski and Robbie Burning who were working in the neighborhood that day along with resident Larry Ferris.
"We are here to recognize three heroic individuals who gave of themselves to save others," Fisher told them.
After the ceremony, each of them downplayed their actions.
"I'm not a hero," said Ferris, who was washing his daughter's car when the plane crashed. "I was the right person at the right time."
"You just do what you have to do in the moment," said Cynthia Kopenski, who was working as a landscaper alongside her father, Robbie Burning.
"If I see somebody hurt, I'm gonna stop to help them," Burning said.
Burning said it was challenging to see the wreckage and the three burned people onboard on the plane. He said he immediately ran to help the woman who appeared in bad shape.
"She was just hanging on the fence," Burning said. "I didn't know if she was dead or not. I just got her off the fence."
He said he took her to a safe spot and told her to lay still and be calm.
Pompano Beach Fire Chief John Jurgle said the actions of all the residents, and these three in particular, saved lives because they went into a dangerous situation, helped the three victims in the plane to safety and provided them comfort until first responders arrived.
"They are very humble and compassionate people and just the care that they spoke to those folks with to calm them down until we got there was instrumental," he said. "To us, they truly are heroes."
CBS4 News has heard from multiple people that the instructor was released from the hospital and the other two people onboard the plane remain hospitalized.