No serious injuries as small plane crashes in Spring Grove

A pleasant day with the family turned frantic in an instant for Mike Dahlen of Spring Grove, who found himself heroically pulling three people from a burning plane that crashed in his front yard.

Relaxing in air-conditioned comfort at home after a trip to the Walworth County Fair, Dahlen was jarred from near sleep when a single-engine plane plowed through trees Sunday before crashing about 40 feet from his front door.

"We heard a big crash. We saw the plane upside down in my yard," he said Monday.

His wife, Charlotte, held tree limbs out of the way as Dahlen scrambled to help the three people inside the plane. The occupants, which included a small boy, a middle-aged man and older man, are believed to be son, father and grandfather.

"The baby seemed to be untouched. It was a miracle," said Dahlen, a heavy equipment mechanic who has been in trauma situations and been trained as a first responder. "The plane was still on fire. I was pulling on the door, kind of bent it and got it out of the way."

After pulling passengers from the wreckage, Dahlen used three fire extinguishers from his house and a garden hose to put out the blaze.

While the child was apparently uninjured, the other passengers were bleeding but apparently escaped serious injury.

"You didn't know if it was going to blow up or what it would do. It was a scary situation for a few minutes," Dahlen said.

The Cessna 150 single-engine plane is registered to Samuel Hutchinson of Fennimore, Wis., according to the Federal Aviation Administration, and had taken off from a private airfield nearby. A call to the Hutchinson home was not returned.

The child and one of the men were treated at the scene, while the third passenger was taken to Centegra Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry as a precaution, according to the Fox Lake Fire Department.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.

Dahlen, 36, said a neighbor who is a paramedic, rushed to the scene and helped the passengers.

He said the neighbor heard the plane "chopping through the trees."

The pilot told the neighbor he knew he was in trouble and went into the trees.

"He said he was trying to steer away from our house," Dahlen said. "Luckily, that's what saved their lives."

The Sugar Grove neighborhood is lined with homes on quarter acre lots and filled with families.

Dahlen, who has four kids, including 10-year-old triplets, said there was a moment as he ran to the burning plane that he wondered where everybody was.

"It goes through your mind, trying to take inventory of your kids and where they were," he said.

Dahlen's grandmother, Palmina, arrived home after the fire was out.

"It was in the yard here . Not only his kids but a lot of the neighbor kids are here playing baseball or football. It was really scary," she said.

Dahlen downplayed his involvement.

"I'm not a hero. I'm just glad everybody's OK," he said.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Audio</h2> <ul class="audio"> <li><a href="/multimedia/?category=9&type=audio&item=54">Spring Grove resident Mike Dahlen on helping plane crash victims </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>