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Alaina Getzenberg, ESPNDec 19, 2024, 04:47 PM ET
- Alaina Getzenberg is a staff writer who covers the Buffalo Bills and the NFL. She joined ESPN in 2021. Alaina was previously a beat reporter for the Charlotte Observer and has also worked for CBS Sports and the Dallas Morning News. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. You can follow her via Twitter @agetzenberg.
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — A single-engine aircraft crashed near a property owned by Buffalo Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins on Thursday morning.
East Aurora Police Department chief of police, Patrick Welch, announced during a press conference that only the pilot was in the plane going from Lansing, M.I. to White Plains, N.Y., but experienced a mechanical issue. The pilot died in the accident. There were no additional injuries reported and no damage to nearby homes. It did land 100-200 feet from the nearest residence, per Welch.
“I still wonder why things happen in life, but tragedies happen all of the time,” Dawkins, who was visibly emotional, said after practice. “The biggest point about it is I just hope that the guy, the pilot’s family is OK. I hope that they’re doing all right, because somebody lost their life today for an accident, a mechanical thing, something. And I’m glad that my family is perfectly fine. The alarm systems, the security guards that are there and all other people that are involved that help keep us safe. Everything was going off, so having the right people in line, and for the family of that pilot, my prayers are out.”
Dawkins said that the residence is not where he lives, but a property he owns in East Aurora, a suburb of Buffalo. His partner, Daiyaana Muhammad, was there checking mail. Dawkins was in the hot tub at the facility preparing for practice when he received a phone call from security and then from Muhammad.
While Dawkins was not present for the initial portion of practice open to media on Thursday, he later joined practice, but was officially listed as did not participate for personal reasons.
“It’s just in this world and in this life, things happen, and you just got to, I hate to say, adapt with it, but you got to try to figure it out and adapt,” Dawkins said. “Once I leave here that’s what I’ll be dealing with for the rest of the day. We got a game on Sunday, so still trying to figure it out.”
