Couple marries days after surviving plane crash together

BOTHELL, Wash. (KING) - An engaged couple moved up their wedding date, getting married days after they survived a small plane crash due to engine failure.

The love story between Allen Kang and Rosseana Morales took flight years ago, but it was cemented July 20 when their small plane crash-landed on a street in Bothell, Washington.

The couple, with Kang piloting, was flying their experimental plane home from Tacoma to Everett after visiting friends when the engine died.

“It was literally stopped,” said Morales, who has a background in aviation.

Without a working engine, the plane started plummeting.

“At first, I did get emotional, like, ‘This is scary. This actually just happened.’ I just remember telling him, ‘Hey, this is what you’ve trained for. I love you and just glide. Let’s find our best place to land,’” Morales said.

The Paine Field airport was still about 10 miles away, and Interstate 5 was packed with cars.

“What’s running through my head is like the highway, the interstate is busy. … I had no intention of taking someone with me. It’s us and no one else,” said Kang, who has been flying for six years.

The next best option, 228th Street Southeast, is a busy Bothell arterial road in the daytime but not at night when the two were flying.

So, surrounded by streets and subdivisions filled with hundreds of houses, Kang made the decision to put the plane down. It clipped some powerlines, but the couple ended up with just minor injuries.

“I see him as my hero, to be honest, and he was a hero that saved so many lives that night. … I think it made our relationship a lot stronger,” Morales said.

The couple felt so strongly that just five days later they got married on the beach in Steilacoom.

“At the end of it, we were just like, ‘We just survived something absolutely insane,’” Kang said.

“The worst thing possible anyone could experience,” Morales added.

The two had planned to get married about a year from now, but after walking away from a plane crash together, they decided not to wait another minute.

“It’s a very scary moment, but it really, for me, it helped me cherish life more and cherish our relationship together,” Morales said.

“I can’t imagine if I was alone, like, what I would do. I was lucky to have her there,” Kang said.

The cause of the engine failure remains under investigation. Instead of being on honeymoon, the newlyweds spent a day meeting with the Federal Aviation Administration.

The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the crash.

Copyright 2022 KING via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.