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EXCLUSIVE: Suffolk County Plane Crash Survivor Recounts Brush With Death

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Although she is bruised and has a broken left arm, Kimberly Brillo is alive.

But there were tense moments during Sunday's plane crash on Long Island, during which Brillo thought she would never see the light of day again.

"I just thought at that very moment, that's it, I'm going. I'm not seeing light again," she told CBS 2's Jessica Schneider on Wednesday.

Brillo was inside a plane that took off from East Hampton Airport and then crashed after losing power. She said that shortly after takeoff she could tell that there was a problem.

"I just know when he called into the tower, I knew something was wrong," she said.

The plane was in pieces and had burst into flames when a group of good Samaritans rushed to the rescue.

"She was on the ground, with her legs still stuck in the plane. Again, without thinking, and the plane's on fire, I grabbed her and ran toward the street," Craig Schum explained.

Brillo said that her husband, the pilot, pulled her away from the wreckage as the others arrived on the scene to carry her unconscious body to safety.

"From what Steve tells me, he pulled me out of the plane and got me as far as he could, then set me on the ground and asked, please get her as far away as you can," she said.

The couple was treated at Stony Brook Hospital. On Wednesday, they were back at home in Massachusetts. Brillo expressed gratitude to everybody who came to their aid that day.

"I appreciate anyone that just stops, whatever the case may be, whether they made a phone call to the paramedics. Anyone that stops and helps, we definitely, greatly appreciate it," she said.

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