NBC 7’s Rory Devine talked exclusively with the pilot who survived a small plane crash in Kearny Mesa that killed her mother. Now, she wants to thank her rescuers.
More than a month has passed since a plane crash unfolded on live television, slamming into the parking lot of a Kearny Mesa Costco store.
Now, the pilot who lost her mother in the crash wants to publicly thank all those who came to her rescue.
Devon Logan, 52, is still recovering physically from major injuries to both legs and her hand, and emotionally from the loss of her mother, Joy Gorian, 78.
She spends her days either sitting in a wheelchair or lying in bed, as she cannot put any weight on her legs.
On July 30, for some unknown reason, her fixed wing, single engine Mooney M20L lost altitude as it circled for a landing at Montgomery Field.
The last thing Logan remembers is flying over the top of the shopping center buildings, aiming toward their end, and then hearing what was probably the plane’s landing gear hitting something on a building’s roof.
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“I remember thinking after the kabang that I hit something, and I thought, alright, this is all on me now. If I’m going to live, I am going to have to get the plane down,” she recounted.
They crashed into the parking lot near Costco. That people credit Logan for getting the plane down without hurting anyone on the ground is appreciated, she says, but she did not aim to hit the building or to have the plane’s wings ricochet off a light pole.
The NTSB told her if she had not hit those things, she might not have lived because the plane would have come down harder and faster.
Many rushed to help, spraying the flames with a fire extinguisher and pulling Logan and Gorian from the wreckage.
That is why Logan is speaking out now. While she has been able to personally thank some of those who ran to her rescue, there are others who came to help too.
"They just responded and if they had not responded like that, I wouldn't be here," she said. "I would have died of smoke inhalation or burns or, I don't know, the plane could have blown up. It's amazing. It's just amazing to me."
Her mother was also pulled from the plane but died shortly thereafter at the hospital.
Several people told Logan her mother did not let go until she knew her daughter was OK.
“I told the nurse please tell my mother that I’m so sorry and I love her,” said Logan, “and she came back in a little while and she acknowledged she heard me.”
Logan said she was told a woman comforted her mother while her mother was lying in the parking lot.
Whoever you are, Logan says thank you.
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