Two Plane Crashes In A Lifetime

Thought his dad ran both planes out of gas, killed himself and his entire family except for this kid.

Edit: turns out he only ran the first plane out of gas. The second crash happened because he went missed, and decided to try a circle to land at the MAP instead of doing the missed approach procedure, lost control of the plane, and crashed.

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/report_outlines_what_caused_sm.html
 
I once had a student, older fella, who told me about 2 aircraft crashes he survived. One was in an old Beech skydiving airplane. They were way overloaded and the pilot decided to take off anyway. The aircraft never cleared the trees and burst into flames at the end of the runway taking several people's lives. He was ejected somehow and survived. His other story was as a young pilot flying in Kansas. He got caught between two storms and watched a tornado come out of the sky and touch down about a mile from him. He decided he had had enough and tried to put his little airplane down in a field next to this farm house. While attempting to land in this field, the turbulence and up/down drafts were insane. So he balls it up on the landing. The farmer sees what is going on and runs out to help. Meanwhile the tornado is tracking directly at this little field and farm house. The farmer pulls him out, and they both run to the cellar where the farmer's family was waiting fearfully for him to return. The tornado passes over the house and completely demolishes it. But he lived to tell the tale. Pretty incredible. This was back in the 60's and 70's. Now he can only fly with an instructor or safety pilot because he is nearly blind. Even blind his landings were smoother than mine most days.
 
We had a discussion here on JC about this a while back. Pretty sad that the Dad pushed the edge to a point of killing 5 people. If you want to be stupid in an aircraft, or car for that matter, go out by yourself! You OWE it to your passengers.....
 
chrisreedrules said:
His other story was as a young pilot flying in Kansas. He got caught between two storms and watched a tornado come out of the sky and touch down about a mile from him. He decided he had had enough and tried to put his little airplane down in a field next to this farm house.
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If you can't decide you've had enough at the point your 172 is being chased down by tornadoes you're an idiot!
 
jtrain609 said:
Thought his dad ran both planes out of gas, killed himself and his entire family except for this kid.

Edit: turns out he only ran the first plane out of gas. The second crash happened because he went missed, and decided to try a circle to land at the MAP instead of doing the missed approach procedure, lost control of the plane, and crashed.

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/report_outlines_what_caused_sm.html
Click to expand...
Good grief I feel bad for the kid but his dad was an idiot.
 
I don't really have the math skill to calculate probability, but I suspect that in the grand scheme of statistics, he's probably the SAFEST passenger imaginable to take with you.

How astronomical are the odds that he'd be in 3 crashes? (assuming no one is shooting at you, @MikeD)

(tongue planted firmly in cheek, if the sarcasm detector fails)
 
I feel somewhat sorry for the guy. It sounds like two separate plane crashes wiped out his entire family. I hope that there was someone from his family there to see him score his first basket.
 
X-Forces said:
Moral of this story..........

Don't get on a plane with this guy!
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At Martinaire we had a plane that had been wrecked and rebuilt FOUR TIMES. It had been tossed by a microburst in Del Rio, ate a goose outside OKC, and was hit on the ramp by a street sweeper whose driver had fallen asleep at the wheel. I can't remember what the 4th one was.

I couldn't decide if it had some bad juju on it or if it was unkillable. I choose to believe the latter.

@JeppUpdater , is 9505B still there?
 
USMCmech said:
At Martinaire we had a plane that had been wrecked and rebuilt FOUR TIMES. It had been tossed by a microburst in Del Rio, ate a goose outside OKC, and was hit on the ramp by a street sweeper whose driver had fallen asleep at the wheel. I can't remember what the 4th one was.

I couldn't decide if it had some bad juju on it or if it was unkillable. I choose to believe the latter.

@JeppUpdater , is 9505B still there?
Click to expand...

At ERAU PRC in the early '90s, we had a 172 that survived a midair. Damaged good but repaired. No one wanted to fly it. But I always thought it was the safest plane in the fleet.
 
USMCmech said:
@JeppUpdater , is 9505B still there?
Click to expand...
Poor 9505. Survived a mid-air, a couple of Texas twisters, and a pilot who skipped out on-deicing. She's had a few sets of wings, still flies a little crooked, but I'm with you - I trust that plane to bring me home every time.

Quite the history for a plane that once featured prominently in a Cessna ad in Flying magazine prior to delivery!

https://books.google.com/books?id=yxzExyESdvsC&pg=PT1&lpg=PT1&dq=cessna cubic feat&source=bl&ots=UeQsH58W90&sig=LWOwUtANCOTNlZ3c_pOm0oZX41U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KRCaVNmEBoKfggSS44KIBw&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=cessna cubic feat&f=false
 
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