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Crash ends Mother’s Day flight
By BRADY DENNIS © St. Petersburg Times, published May 15, 2001 ZEPHYRHILLS -- Andrea Abbruzzese has had better Mother's Days, although this one started out well enough.
There, they visited shops along Duval Street. They ate out. They lounged on the beach. That afternoon, they put 20 gallons of fuel into the plane at Island City Flying Service at the Key West airport. Apparently, they should have put in 21 gallons. Investigators say the plane ran out of fuel and crashed about 1 a.m. Monday, just a mile south of its destination, Zephyrhills Municipal Airport. All four escaped life-threatening injuries. But none of them escaped the shock of falling to the earth. "I knew the engine had cut off," Andrea Abbruzzese, 37, told a reporter Monday morning. She sat in her living room at 8801 Sparkle Berry Lane in Zephyrhills, her back and legs cut and bruised. She was still wearing a hospital gown. "We could see the runway. I kept thinking we were going to make it," she said, her voice choking with emotion. "Then we were just going into this dark abyss. I heard the ripping of trees and jolting. At that moment, I thought, "Oh, my God, I hope we're all going to live.' " The plane landed in woods about 200 feet east of Yonkers Boulevard, about a mile south of Chancey Road, according to Sheriff's Office reports. Danny Abbruzzese, a licensed pilot for 30 years, said he was sure the airplane had six hours' worth of fuel. The trip from Key West takes only two hours. Still, Andrea Abbruzzese told deputies that one of the plane's fuel gauges had been reading incorrectly lately and wouldn't register less than half a tank of fuel. Danny Abbruzzese said he was about 5 miles from the airport, flying at about 4,200 feet, when the engine died. "We had the airport in sight. It was right there, and the engine just cut out," said Danny Abbruzzese, adding that he tried at first to glide the plane to the runway. "When I knew we weren't going to make the runway, I just tried to hit the ground as slow as possible. I pointed the airplane up so we wouldn't hit anything head-on." He lost consciousness when the plane hit. The first thing Andrea Abbruzzese remembers after that is her son's sarcastic comment: "That was fun. Let's go again." The very next moment, he was acting like a hero, she said. "I could see he was under part of the wing, and the whole back of the plane was ripped off," she said. "Melanie was under the seat, and I couldn't walk. (Josh) started digging around and found flashlights. He pulled out the cover to the plane and covered her up. "Then we searched with flashlights and found the cell phone and called 911. We were in the middle of the forest just waiting." Andrea Abbruzzese and her two children were taken for treatment to East Pasco Medical Center in Zephyrhills. Danny Abbruzzese was taken by helicopter to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa and released later Monday morning. He sufferred a cut above his right eye and possibly a concussion. Josh's right ankle was cut and swollen. And his sister suffered a strained neck. She lay sleeping in a downstairs bedroom Monday morning. Sheriff's deputies who first arrived at the scene said the aircraft appeared destroyed. They said the wings had separated from the fuselage. The roof of the passenger cabin was torn off. Debris and exterior pieces of the plane were scattered through the treetops and on the ground. They also smelled no fuel and saw none on the ground, which suggested that the plane was out of gas, the report stated. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the accident Monday. Despite the accident, Andrea Abbruzzese said she felt lucky that her Mother's Day turned out the way it did. It could have been tragic. "My husband made sure we landed nose up," she said. "If we had gone head down, I don't think you'd be talking to us right now." - Brady Dennis covers the city of Zephyrhills and police news in east Pasco. His phone number is 352-521-5757, ext. 23.
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