It was an ordinary day at the beach…until it became a shocking whirlwind for everyone. Carlsbad State Beach goers were frightened when a small plane made an emergency crash landing onto the shore.
Although the 23-year-old pilot walked away unscathed, the plane struck 12-year-old Nicholas Baer. Many of his friends are referring to him as the "Miracle Dude" for surviving the crash.
This isn't the first time a young person has walked away from a disaster like this. Autumn Veatch was just 16 when she managed to survive a plane crash and navigate her way back to safety — Nicholas Baer is in good company.
"At the last second, he saw it and he almost fell back trying to get out of the way and he hit his face," said Carson Scott, Nicholas' friend at Valley Middle School. Carson and his dad, who was supervising the outing, quickly sprung into action as they waited for the paramedics.
"I was holding the back of his head just trying to keep him calm and waiting for people to show up," Carson said. Nicholas was checked into Rady Children's Hospital and is lucky to be alive.
However, some are calling his rapid recovery a miracle. See the full story below!
When a small plane made an emergency crash landing on the beach, the pilot was unharmed, but the plane hit 12-year-old Nicholas Baer.
“I was kind of transitioning to skimboarding, and then the plane just came down,” Nicholas said.
Everyone, including his friends Titus Matsubara and Carson Scott, believed he had to be dead.
“We thought the plane was on top of him,” Titus said.
“Yeah, he started to move and then Titus is like, ‘He’s alive, he’s alive,’” Carson added.
However, in what seems nothing short of miraculous, Nicholas survived. Although he suffered a concussion and fractured skull bone, he was released from the hospital after just four days.
“I remember waking up and I’m going to the ambulance and going to the hospital,” he said.
The only real bruise is to his ego — he's a little embarrassed about his newly shaved head. But, in yet another surprise twist to the story, 12 of his friends volunteered to shave theirs, too, to make him more comfortable!
These days, his friends call him the "Miracle Dude." What he thinks of the name?
“I don’t really like the name,” Nicholas said. “I’m just another person that just got hit by a plane.”
See Nicholas' miraculous story in the video below.
While sustaining injuries from a plane crash is no joke, we think Nicholas is going to revel in telling this story to the grandkids one day!
Please SHARE if you didn't think surviving a plane crash was possible!
