Woman Prepares to go Home 8 Months After Plane Crashes Through her Roof 8/9/12

Shannon Murray
CBS 7 Reporter
smurray@cbs7.com
August 9, 2012

Midland, TX - An 81-year-old Midland woman is finally moving home more than 8 months after a plane crashes through her roof.

On December 2nd that plane was supposed to land at the Midland Airpark but instead crashed into Estela Trowbridge’s house, her home and everything inside a total loss. The past 6 months she has been working to rebuild the house her husband built for her. While Estela is ready to start over again, she will never forget that traumatic day when she woke up early to bake Christmas cookies.

"I got up and went straight to the kitchen, thank God I did," she says.

While she was in the kitchen, a plane crashed into her bedroom.

"Then I looked up and an explosion!” Estela remembers. “I saw fire, everything burned, everything burned...there was nothing left. I can't even think about it, its been a whole year that was taken away from me. I've just been here, I don't go out, I just can't. I just want to go home, its all I want to do."

Soon enough she will. Although her brand new home is almost ready, she knows it will be nothing like the one her late husband built for them to live in.

"It's not the same house that I had before because I had a big house and I have done it smaller because of the money,” she explains. “And now not only is everything expensive but because were in a boom everything is even more expensive, you can't get workers, you can't get materials."

Now her only battle is moving forward.

"It's been like a nightmare to me, like a nightmare. I wish I was at home, that's all."

Estela did have insurance that is covering the cost of her new home as well as rent for the apartment she has been living in since the crash. She hopes to move back in by the end of the month.