The pilot who walked away unscathed after his small plane crashed into a Colorado house he used to own said he knows his survival is unlikely — and that the chances of plunging into his former residence were astronomical.
"A lot of people are calling it a miracle, and I believe that is true," Brian Veatch told NBC affiliate KUSA in Denver, Colo. "There's got to be a reason I'm still around."
Veatch managed to walk away from the crash uninjured, and no one else on the ground was hurt. No one was inside the Northglenn, Colo., home when the Piper PA-25 Pawynee aircraft crashed into it about 3:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. ET) Monday, setting it on fire.
In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said the single-engine aircraft had experienced trouble will towing a banner, and that Veatch "escaped from the aircraft and parachuted safely to the ground before the aircraft went down."
Veatch realized he had plunged into a house he once owned when he ran up to the side of the residence. He said the odds of crashing into his own home are staggering.
"I don't know any pilot that would be good enough to fly upside down and crash into the house they owned a decade ago," Veatch told KUSA.
He added: "There was a moment I did not think I was going to survive."
Crews removed the airplane's wreckage from the house Tuesday.