Crash survivor: Watching TV, then roof fell in

updated 4:47 p.m. ET Feb. 13, 2009

CLARENCE, N.Y. - A woman who survived a commuter plane crashing into her home in a Buffalo suburb said Friday she and her daughter were watching television when the aircraft smashed through the roof, pinning them in the wreckage and killing her husband.

Karen Wielinski told Buffalo radio station WBEN-AM that she was in the family room of her home in Clarence and her 22-year-old daughter was in an upstairs bedroom when the Continental Airlines plane crashed into their home. Officials have said all 49 people on board were killed.

“Planes do go over our house, but this one just sounded really different, louder, and I thought to myself, 'If that’s a plane, it’s going to hit something,” Wielinski said in a telephone interview. “The next thing I knew the ceiling was on me.”

Wielinski, 57, said she pushed her way out of the debris and crawled through a hole in the wreckage as fire erupted around her. She said her daughter, Jill Wielinski, managed a similar escape.

Doug Wielinski, a 61-year-old engineer and Vietnam veteran, was probably in the dining room, his wife said.

“To me it looked like the plane just came down in the middle of the house and unfortunately that was where Doug was,” she said.

Wielinski, a secretary for the Clarence school district, choked up when asked how she wanted her husband to be remembered.

“He was a good person, loved his family,” she said as she broke down in tears.

Wielinski said she suffered a fractured collar bone and Jill suffered scratches on her feet. They were treated at a local hospital and released.

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