Buffalo Survivor Recounts 'Miracle' Escape From Home

The plane slammed directly into their Buffalo home, but somehow Karen Wielinski and her daughter survived. “I heard a noise—planes do go over our house, but this just sounded very different,” Wielinski, 53, told WBEN radio. “The next thing I knew, the ceiling was on me.” She managed to crawl out, as did 22-year-old Jill, who was watching TV upstairs. Her husband did not. “It looked like the plane went through the middle of the house," said Karen. "Unfortunately, that’s where Doug was.”

Buried under the living room rubble, Wielinski tried not to panic. "I noticed some light to my right. The back of the house was gone." Upstairs, the "attic came down" on Jill, but, "she, too miraculously, saw an opening and slid out of (it),” said Wielinski. "When I got (Jill) she of course wanted to know where Doug was and I didn't know. I just told her that we had to get out of there, we had to get away from the fire."  


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