An Ohio man who lived in an apartment building that went up in flames Tuesday when a business jet crashed into it, killing 9 people, said an errand to get Hot Pockets saved his life.
Jason Bartley, 38, told the Akron Beacon Journal that he had been in his home just 39 minutes before the plane crashed into it, when he decided to run errands.
Bartley said he wanted to get to the bank before it closed, so he drove there first, and then went to the supermarket next door.
On his way home, Bartley decided to make a quick detour to a Dollar General to buy a pizza Hot Pocket for dinner and another Hot Pocket for the next morning.
When he got back to his neighborhood, he could see it was ablaze and thought, "Oh, my God. What did I do?"
A bystander told him about the plane crash, which killed all 9 people onboard when it went into the apartment building. The cause of the crash is still being determined by investigators.
National Transportation Safety Board officials said Wednesday that the plane was flying at a low altitude and banking to the left before it crashed into half the apartment, destroying it, and finally running up an embankment behind the building.
No one was inside the apartment building at the time of the crash.
Bartley told the Beacon Journal on Wednesday that he was still in shock and expressed condolences for those who had died. He said he had no insurance and was heartbroken that he lost almost everything he owned but was happy to still be alive. Bartley's friend set up a GoFundMe account to help with his expenses.
“Anything could have went differently and I would have been — nobody’s going to survive once it hit,” he said. “I would have never known what happened."
Correction: Bartley's friend set up the GoFundMe page for him, according to the site. Bartley didn't set it up for himself.