More than a year after he was pulled from a small plane at North Perry Airport, a commercial pilot is speaking out about his remarkable recovery. Speaking with 7News on Friday, Assem Ashat said flying planes is something he wanted to do since he was a boy. “I aways wanted to be a pilot, since I was 5 years old. I was that kid that stayed at balconies waving at every airplane passing by,” he said. Ashat achieved that goal. He became an experienced banner pilot. He had accumulated over 1,000 flying hours when his yellow Piper PA-25 Pawnee crashed at the airport in Pembroke Pines on May 25, 2023. “This accident was caused because there was mechanical issues,” he said. Ashat was maneuvering the plane to catch the banner when one of the aircraft’s rudders failed. “So I lost my rudder, and I pushed the nose down, and before I know it, I tried to avoid the buildings, and before I know it, I just, like, crashed. Thenplane got into a spin,” he said. The Piper crashed from about 250 to 300 feet in the air. Ashat said he was conscious, but something was definitely wrong. “I tell [first responders], ‘I don’t feel my legs, my legs are numb. I don’t feel anything; I can’t move my legs,'” he said. “They told me, ‘You are not walking again.'” Ashat learned he had suffered a spinal cord injury. He underwent a nine-hour back surgery, another surgery on his neck and clavicle. Then came the hard work: seven to eight months of physical therapy, sometimes three to four hours a day. “The most thing [that] hurt me is that I was not able to provide again as a man. That was the main thing, and [that I] will not be able to fly again,” he said. Doctors told Ashat that it would be a miracle if he ever walked again. But Ashat believes in miracles, so he worked hard. “I trusted the process. I kept on doing, like – my homework is, [my therapist] would give me, like, five sets of 10 laps, for example. I would do hundreds of sets, thousands of reps,” he said. Ashat got stronger, beat the odds, and he’s walking again. He said he’s in better shape now than before the crash, adding he wants to encourage others to never give up. “Listen to what the doctors tell you, the physical therapists. Do not try to get depressed,” he said. “I know it’s hard, I know it’s tough, but you could get better, so if I can help one person, that would be, like, a great achievement for me.” Ashat said he went up in the air a few weeks ago, and he can’t wait to be able to fly a plane again. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration continue to investigate the crash. It should take several more months before their analysis is complete.