Flight instructor identified in training plane crash near Corpus Christi International Airport<\/a><\/p>\nCole Hohne, the instructor, and his active-duty Navy trainee, Malcolm Patchett, were both hospitalized following the crash and remain in San Antonio, according to family members.<\/p>\n
Hohne is in critical condition, on a ventilator and under sedation at Brooke Army Medical Center, a family member told 3NEWS. Doctors have not been able to determine whether he will survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have not been able to tell us whether he’s going to make it or not,\u201d the family member said. \u201cHere we are, almost seven days after, and we didn\u2019t know we\u2019d get one day. So this is\u2026 this is a gift. It\u2019s a gift that he\u2019s with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Family members say Hohne pulled his student from the burning aircraft after it went down.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the plane went down, it burst into flames and he got out and pulled his student pilot out,\u201d the family member said.<\/p>\n
The actions may have saved the trainee\u2019s life but left Hohne with third-degree burns across an estimated 75% to 80% of his body, the family member said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey teach them to save their student, save themselves and save the plane in that order,\u201d the family member said. \u201cAnd it appears he followed his training to a T.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good Samaritans rushed to the scene to help before first responders arrived. One of them, Melissa Ibanez, described what she saw in a statement to 3NEWS.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I reached the victims, another man had already stopped and was assisting one of them, which later I found out was the student,\u201d Ibanez said. \u201cI went to help the other victim \u2026 He had a severe burn to his left hand and arms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hohne was briefly able to speak with his family by phone before being transported for treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said he loved us and that he was in a bad accident \u2026 EMS were with him,\u201d the family member said. \u201cI think it was an EMS technician that let him call. So we did speak to him very, very briefly after, which is a miracle he was even conscious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those who know Hohne say his actions were consistent with his character.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019ve reached out to people in his life and told them what happened, they all said the same thing,\u201d the family member said. \u201cI\u2019m not surprised that he helped and he saved his student.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Hohne continues to fight for his life, his family says they are leaning on faith and community support.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s online or in person or at church or anybody I come in contact with, the prayers work,\u201d the family member said. \u201cHe\u2019s living proof. Keep doing it. Keep doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hohne remains in critical condition. 3NEWS will continue to follow this story as it develops.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Texas flight instructor is being called a hero after rescuing his student from a burning plane. His…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-260369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}