--- title: Akron Ohio Plane Crash: Hot Pockets Save Man's Life description: Buying the snack kept him out of harm's way canonical: https://time.com/4110206/akron-plane-crash-hot-pockets/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-12T18:46:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:26:53.681Z og:title: Man Says Hot Pockets Saved Him From Deadly Plane Crash og:description: Buying the snack kept him out of harm's way og:url: https://time.com/4110206/akron-plane-crash-hot-pockets/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Says Hot Pockets Saved Him From Deadly Plane Crash twitter:description: Buying the snack kept him out of harm's way twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Man Says Hot Pockets Saved Him From Deadly Plane Crash by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Nov 12, 2015 6:46 PM UTC by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Nov 12, 2015 6:46 PM UTC On Tuesday, a business jet [crashed](http://time.com/4107048/plane-crash-building-ohio/) into an apartment building in Akron, Ohio, killing everyone onboard. No one was inside the four-unit building at the time of the crash — and one tenant, 38-year-old Jason Bartley, says he has Hot Pockets to thank for that. Bartley had been inside his apartment precisely 39 minutes before the crash, he [told](http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/saved-by-hot-pockets-akron-apartment-dweller-misses-plane-crash-by-minutes-1.639655?localLinksEnabled=false) the Akron _Beacon Journal_, when he decided to go run some errands. On his way home, he decided to make a stop and pick up some Hot Pockets. When he drove back to his neighborhood, he saw flames — and soon realized he’d narrowly missed the crash. (His first thought was that he had left an appliance running and started the fire himself.) “Really, I guess it was dumb luck,” Bartley [told](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dumb-luck-hot-pocket-saves-man-affected-akron-plane-crash-n462156?cid=sm%5Ffb) NBC News. Though Bartley feels lucky to be alive, he’s now dealing with the fact that he lost all his possessions. A friend set up a [GoFundMe page](https://www.gofundme.com/2w9s2ayc) for Jason, explaining that he had no renter’s insurance and “is literally left with nothing.” She said he plans to use donated money to replace clothing, household items, home furnishing and necessities during his current period of dislocation. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4110206/akron-plane-crash-hot-pockets/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4110206/akron-plane-crash-hot-pockets/"},"headline":"Man Says Hot Pockets Saved Him From Deadly Plane Crash","datePublished":"2015-11-12T18:46:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:26:53.681Z","description":"Buying the snack kept him out of harm's way","url":"https://time.com/4110206/akron-plane-crash-hot-pockets/","keywords":["Newsfeed","U.S."],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4110206/akron-plane-crash-hot-pockets/","name":"Man Says Hot Pockets Saved Him From Deadly Plane Crash"}}]}] ```