Emergency landing on street averts disaster

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3 on plane suffer minor injuries in fiery Fort Lauderdale landing
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 11:53 p.m. ET June 13, 2005FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A World War II-era cargo plane sheared off treetops and narrowly missed homes as its crew guided it to a fiery landing on a Fort Lauderdale city street on Monday. All three people on board survived.

Though hospitalized, the three were “sitting up and talking on their cell phones” hours after the crash, hospital spokeswoman Maria Soldani said. Two people on the ground also were hurt, one seriously.

The DC-3 cargo flight en route to the Bahamas crashed about three miles east of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport shortly after takeoff, said Greg Martin, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.

The co-pilot told firefighters a fuel line broke and one of the plane’s two engines was in flames before the crash, said Stephen McInerny, assistant chief of operations for Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8206866/