A 34-year-old Army National Guard pilot was killed and his brother was left paralyzed from the waist down after the plane they were flying crashed on Friday afternoon.
Scott Landis, a father of a 16-month-old boy, died from a result of his injuries after the plane went down near Cranland Airport in Hanson, Massachusetts, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s office.
Scott and his brother, Patrick Landis, 29, were on their way to spread their late father’s ashes.
Patrick is being treated at Tufts Medical Center, and according to his aunt, he “sustained too many broken bones to count, a broken back and severed spinal cord,” which caused him to be paralyzed.
“Currently on a ventilator to help him heal, he is going to have years of recovery,” Marie Conway Real wrote on a GoFundMe page she created for him. “My sister, his mom, lost her husband of 40 years, her 1st born son 10 days later and is now going to need to take care of her paralyzed son. Please consider donating. They need all the help they can get.”
On another GoFundMe page — which was created for Scott’s family and has since raised over $48,000 —a family member wrote that “he left behind his loving wife, Staci, and beautiful child, Jack, who could really use your help in this difficult time.”
According to NECN, Scott was on leave from a tour of duty in Kosovo after his father’s death. He was to return to Kosovo on Saturday.
“Scott had really grand plans for him and his family, and it’s gone,” his close friend, Adam Proulx, told the news outlet.
Peter Oakley, the owner and manager of Cranland Airport, said that Scott, who is going to be remembered as a “salt of the earth” man, flew his son and wife to Martha’s Vineyard for lunch just days ago.
The Federal Aviation Administration is currently investigating the crash, according to the District Attorney’s Office, but Proulx believes Scott did everything he could have during the accident.
“We are all confident that he did the best that he thought he could do with what he was provided with altitude and speed,” he said. “It just didn’t work out.”
NBC Boston reports that there was the brother became trapped in the water after the crash.
“It was heavy, thick brush that we were working with, and mud conditions, along with aviation fuel in the water, so Hanson Police and Hansen Fire worked together to extricate him,” Hanson Fire Deputy Chief Rob O’Brien told the news outlet. “They did have to use sawzalls and hand tools to remove part of the aircraft.”
“From the time the call came in to extrication was probably 15 minutes, and they were both taken out simultaneously,” added Sgt. Peter Daley of the Hanson Police Dept.
