Deaf California woman took her dog for a walk in a soccer field. Seconds later, a crashing plane came straight for her

It was a calm afternoon in Long Beach, California, when a deaf woman took her dog for a walk across the wide green soccer fields of Heartwell Park, until everything changed. A small plane came down from the sky, and the woman became the unluckiest person on the field.

At around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21, a usual afternoon at Heartwell Park, near Carson Street and Clark Avenue, turned into something out of a disaster film. 40-year-old Tiffany Harrison was walking her dog in the park when a small aircraft crashed and landed on the soccer field, striking her mid-walk before anyone could warn her.

According to the Long Beach Fire Department, the single-engine, two-seater experimental plane was attempting an emergency landing after taking off from Compton/Woodley Airport earlier that day. The pilot, an elderly man in his 60s, told investigators he’d been trying to return when the landing gear failed. The aircraft came down on its belly, skidding across the field.

The deaf woman is left with a broken spine

Harrison, who is reportedly deaf, couldn’t hear the engine failing overhead and got hit by the plane. The impact left her with a deep gash that required two blood transfusions, a broken pelvis, and multiple spinal fractures. “They had to do surgery to clean it out,” said Brittany McFall, Harrison’s sister. She also revealed how the incident has affected Harrison:

“Her spine is broken in multiple spots. This is very traumatic for her, and she’s probably going to have PTSD because a normal person wouldn’t just walk in the park and have this freak accident.” (via ABC7)

But her dog, remarkably, escaped unharmed. Harrison was rushed to a local hospital along with the pilot, both listed in “moderate but stable condition.” Fire Captain Jack Crabtree confirmed that the plane’s fuselage was intact and the pilot was rescued by paramedics.

Was the aircraft illegal?

Investigators later learned the aircraft was a home-built experimental model. It’s an uncommon design, but it is FAA-certified. “There’s hundreds of them flying over Southern California all the time,” said Dennis Lord, hangar manager at Compton/Woodley Airport. The pilot was reportedly returning to Compton/Woodley Airport when the incident happened, which is roughly 15 miles from the park.

Authorities are investigating the crash and the mechanical cause and are requesting people to steer clear of the area. But the story is almost too surreal to believe, and has since gone viral. A woman walking her dog, a plane falling from the sky, and a city left shaken by how close catastrophe came to an ordinary park. But the freak accident reminds us how fragile a normal day can be.