Fort Myers man recalls near-miss with plane crash on I-75

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Two years after a plane crash on Interstate 75, the memories remain vivid for those who witnessed it.

Bill Sears was driving with his wife when a plane suddenly flew over their heads.

"If I was 10 seconds further down the road, that would have belly would have just landed on me," said Sears.

"After about a minute of driving, all of a sudden, a plane came right over our head, and I said to her, 'That doesn't look like he's going to make the airport,'" said Sears. "We were kind of going with it as it hit and it started to break up, and the landing gear was bouncing next to us in the grass."

The sight of the flames is forever etched in Sears' memory.

Sears described the scene as a "Roman candle" engulfed in flames. He ran toward the crash to see if he could help.

"I just started running, because I realized it take a little while, and every second counts," he said. "... to see if there's anything I could do, any survivors, or if I could help anybody that might be in the plane."

Two years later, Sears's white Jeep still sits in his driveway. While the plane crash may be in his rearview, he remembers the sacrifice the pilots made to protect drivers like him.

Reflecting on the pilots' actions, Sears said, "I think they're professional heroes. I mean, their own lives were at stake, and they brought this thing to a conclusion that only affected them, you know, physically."

Sears shared that a spider on his lanai delayed his departure from home that day. His wife asked him to move it outside, and that small delay may have saved their lives.