By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
At left is son, Hun, 15. In the photo above,
Ko leaves the plane with wife, Mi Sun.

‘I’m not a hero,’
says isle man
in air crash

But Sgt. Ko was heroic as
he carried a hurt elderly man
out of the fiery wreck

By Leila Fujimori
Star-Bulletin

As family and friends from the Hawaii Army National Guard feasted on kal bi, man doo and cake at a welcome-home party in Wahiawa, Sgt. 1st. Class Jeffrey Ko -- a survivor of Tuesday's American Airlines crash in Little Rock, Ark. -- insisted he is not a hero.

But when Flight 1420 skidded off a runway in a thunderstorm, struck a steel walkway and cracked open and burst into flames, Ko carried an Arizona man with a broken leg out of the plane and dragged him to safety.

Other passengers climbed over the man in the rush to get out of the burning plane, Ko said.

Ko's first thought after the plane came to a stop was that he was a father and he had to get out, but then he heard cries for help.

"I find some old man and I asked him, "Are you OK?' He told me, "My leg is broken.'"

After carrying the man from the plane, Ko looked back at the broken MD-82 jetliner.

"I never seen the fire so big," he said. "I looked at the plane again and the wing exploded."

Feeling the heat from the flames and with thick smoke in the air, Ko took off his aloha shirt and wrapped it around the man's face to protect him from the smoke.

He continued to drag the man about 50 feet from the wreckage, dropping to the ground several times so he could breathe.

By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Jerry Ko, 13, hangs on tight to his dad, Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Ko,
as the Hawaii Army National Guardsman recounts the ordeal of
the crash of flight 1420 last week in Little Rock, Ark. Ko, 43,
received a hero's welcome after returning to Honolulu yesterday.

"The Army trained me to save my life and save other persons," said Ko, 43.

He said a woman at the scene called him an angel. But Ko said: "I'm not an angel. I just know what is right and wrong, and I made the right choice."

The pilot and eight passengers died in the crash.

His wife, Mi Sun, and sons Hun, 15, and Jerry, 13, other family members and about 30 of his National Guard co-workers showed up at the airport yesterday for Ko's return from Little Rock.

Ko said he had no fears about flying again, but he did have nightmares about the crash.

He said as the plane careened out of control, he thought he was going to die.

"Four rows ahead of me, the left wing was in flames," Ko said.

"I felt this is the day I'm going to die."

Now that he is back home, he said he wants to spend time with his family. Son Jerry held his father tightly around the waist as Ko talked with reporters about his ordeal.

His commander, Col. Glen Sakagawa, said he was not surprised that Ko put the safety of others ahead of himself.

"In the military, all the training you get becomes a reflex," Sakagawa said. "Instinctively, he reacted to do what is right. We're proud of him."

But Ko's platoon believes it's more than that. "It's about heart," said Specialist Allen Scott.

Staff Sgt. Mara Bacon recalls that Ko was the first to arrive at Queen's Emergency room when she was sick. "He's a very caring person."

Ko, however, continued to brush off the praise. "I'm not a hero. I'm a normal person. I do what I have to do," he said.

The other Hawaii Army National Guardsman on the American Airlines plane that crashed in Little Rock also returned to Hawaii yesterday.

Sgt. Fred Agag suffered a deep cut to his leg from the American Airlines crash. He returned by air ambulance accompanied by his wife. Agag, 31, was also called a hero. The day after the crash, as he lay in his hospital bed in Arkansas, a couple from Dallas came to him and thanked him for carrying the woman to safety.

Back in Hawaii now, "Agag is doing fine" and is recuperating at Tripler Hospital, said a National Guard spokesman.