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From Avweb.com
Pilot Survives Two Crashes In One Day
Pilot Justin R. Kirkbride has an amazing story to tell -- one he likely hopes never to repeat. The 31-year-old was piloting a Cessna 172 over inhospitable terrain near Durango, Colo., on a sightseeing flight last Wednesday when he said he started having some aircraft control problems. The problems were apparently severe enough to convince him he should take the plane in for a controlled crash on a mountain at about 9,600 feet. With no suitable landing space, Kirkbride opted to stall the plane over a grove of spruce trees. It was a good plan. The trees broke the plane's fall, sparing the three aboard. Kirkbride and one passenger were unhurt. A second passenger suffered a fractured ankle and lower leg. With temperatures in the 20s and night approaching, Kirkbride left the crash site and walked six hours, through the snow, to a place where his cellphone would transmit and called for help. He was retrieved by a search-and-rescue helicopter dispatched from Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M., and assisted in finding the downed Cessna. Ironically, the MH-53J Pave Low helicopter also crash-landed after its main rotor struck a tree as it was either landing at or departing the Cessna's crash site. Though the 70-foot drop was a hard one, no one on board was hurt. Two-fer Kirkbride and the others were finally evacuated from the twin crash site on Thursday.
Pilot Survives Two Crashes In One Day
Pilot Justin R. Kirkbride has an amazing story to tell -- one he likely hopes never to repeat. The 31-year-old was piloting a Cessna 172 over inhospitable terrain near Durango, Colo., on a sightseeing flight last Wednesday when he said he started having some aircraft control problems. The problems were apparently severe enough to convince him he should take the plane in for a controlled crash on a mountain at about 9,600 feet. With no suitable landing space, Kirkbride opted to stall the plane over a grove of spruce trees. It was a good plan. The trees broke the plane's fall, sparing the three aboard. Kirkbride and one passenger were unhurt. A second passenger suffered a fractured ankle and lower leg. With temperatures in the 20s and night approaching, Kirkbride left the crash site and walked six hours, through the snow, to a place where his cellphone would transmit and called for help. He was retrieved by a search-and-rescue helicopter dispatched from Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M., and assisted in finding the downed Cessna. Ironically, the MH-53J Pave Low helicopter also crash-landed after its main rotor struck a tree as it was either landing at or departing the Cessna's crash site. Though the 70-foot drop was a hard one, no one on board was hurt. Two-fer Kirkbride and the others were finally evacuated from the twin crash site on Thursday.