Surgeon injured in plane crash will operate again

TAMPA — The left hand of Dr. Daniel Greenwald, which helped him earn a reputation as a plastic surgeon, will recover fully after a plane crash nearly killed him Friday.

“I’ve had better days. I am alive,” Greenwald said Monday. “My hand is pinned and may need some (more) surgery. ... I think I’ll be fine.”

Greenwald, 48, and friend, Mitch Kirby, 19, were returning from a sightseeing trip over the Port of Tampa when Greenwald’s Extra 300 single-engine plane struck a sailboat floating in a shipping channel and a sea wall before it flipped over onto the Peter O. Knight Airport airfield on Davis Islands. Kirby suffered a broken leg while Greenwald, who piloted the plane, broke a bone in his left hand.

Greenwald, former head of plastic surgery at Tampa General Hospital who now runs Bayshore Plastic Surgery, said he expects to be back to work within two weeks. He said he was on a normal approach for landing Friday when he didn’t see the sailboat in his flight path because of the angle of the plane’s approach and because the boat didn’t have its sails up.

Greenwald’s plane struck the mast of the boat and veered toward a sea wall. Tampa Fire Rescue Capt. Bill Wade said Friday that the plane was lucky to have hit the top of the sea wall and not any lower, saving both pilot and passenger.

Greenwald called it a calculated maneuver. He used his left rudder to make an acrobatic move to get the nose of the plane up to clear the sea wall.

“The right wing fell off, and we were pointing at the sea wall and reflexes took over to help me fly and clear the sea wall,” he said.

Greenwald, who has flown privately and commercially for more than 35 years, used to fly aerobatic maneuvers, which included looping and rolling in the air. He said he plans to fly again.

Justin George, Times Staff Writer

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