Pilot survives crash into church lot

BARTOW (FOX 13) - Cell phone video shows the terrifying moments a typical Sunday service at Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church turned upside down.

"We heard a big boom and our lights flickered," Associate Pastor Dr. Kenneth Stephens said Monday.

Around 12:15 Sunday afternoon, a small plane crashed in their small grassy parking lot, taking out a SUV in the process.  Robert Silva of Jensen Beach was alone, piloting the plane. He miraculously dodged the church's sanctuary, which was packed with 300 people at the time.

Parishioners rushed out, climbing on the plane's wing to help.

"We went around and got it, someone helped us up to the top of the plane and we began to apply pressure to his head," congregation member Queen Morris said.

Witnesses say Silva was in and out of consciousness.

"We were praying and the nurses were doing their thing, but to see him covered in blood, we just didn't know," Stephens said.

Silva, 61, is stable at a Lakeland hospital. Church members surveying the scene Monday say it was always out of their hands.

"The fact that it turned out this way, we owe all praise to God," Stephens added. 

The FAA and NTSB are investigating the crash.