Lindsay E. Terry/news-press.com A Fort Myers firefighter walks by an old war plane that crash landed at about 10:50 a.m. Tuesday in the parking lot of the Edison Mall in Fort Myers. A pilot and a passenger were on board, but no one was seriously injured. Order Picture ALSO FROM NEWS-PRESS.COM  Plane crash at Edison Mall Photo Gallery: Plane crash at mall Photo Gallery: Reader submitted plane crash DELIVERING YOUR WORLD • Subscribe to The News-Press • Place a classified ad • Printer friendly version • Email this article

The engine on the old war plane started to shake about a half mile from the landing strip, leaving Doug Jenkins no choice but to try an emergency landing.

He crashed his 1943 Taylorcraft L-2 on Tuesday near the busy Edison Mall in Fort Myers, escaping serious injury along with his passenger.

The National Transportation Security Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the cause of the crash.

"I've never crashed before," said Jenkins, 60, a Fort Myers resident who has been flying for more than 25 years. "We're very lucky neither of us was hurt badly."

His passenger, neighbor Scott Bachelor, was taken to Lee Memorial Hospital for precautionary reasons.

special to news-press.com This photo was taken by Dustin McCloon of Performance Air, who was working on the roof of the Iguana Mia on Tuesday when a plane crashed in a parking lot at the Edison Mall.

This time, as he was preparing to land at nearby Page Field, the engine started to shake so he tried to land in front of Macy's in the mall.

"You're just trying to get into a parking lot instead of a building," he said.

He hit five vehicles, instead, in the parking lot between the Firestone car service shop and the strip mall with the Iguana Mia restaurant.

A minivan and a sports utility vehicle had major damage — the shattered nose of the plane was between them — and three cars had scrapes and dents.

The owners of the battered vehicles are cooks at Iguana Mia. They declined to comment.

When the crash occurred, Fort Myers resident Joseph DiNorcia, 87, was sitting in a chair outside the back door of Birdie's Pizza, waiting to start helping in the pizzeria kitchen.

"All of a sudden I saw this plane coming at me," he said. "I ran. I've never seen anything like it."

Bobby Blanchard, 40, another Fort Myers resident, was driving on U.S. 41 when he saw a plane coming toward his truck.

"You've seen stuff like that on TV and you don't think it can happen to you," he said. "It could have easily hit my truck."

The Fort Myers police and fire departments and the Lee County Sheriff's Office responded immediately, and blocked the crash area.

Firefighter Rob Alphin said a gas leak was stopped using absorbent pads, kitty litter and oil dry.

More than 50 people gathered outside the police tape, asking what happened, staring, taking pictures.

Around 2:30 p.m., the investigator from the Federal Aviation Administration arrived from Tampa to inspect the scene, while a truck was on its way from Arcadia to remove the tattered aircraft.

By that time, Jenkins was standing in the shade of the strip mall, eating pizza and a burger.

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