Close Call

(Now that my ISP has restored FTP access, let the blogging resume.)

My cousin Tim, amongst other interesting things, is a pilot. One of his piloting jobs is crop dusting.

The aphids moved in on area soybean fields in the last couple of weeks, so the skies have been filled with planes and helicopters spraying insecticide. Tim was spraying in the area and I got the opportunity last Thursday to take some pictures.

Then on Saturday we were at Tim’s parents picking sweetcorn. When we went back up to the house his mother met us and said, “Becky (Tim’s wife) called and said a plane crashed but she’s almost positive it’s not Tim.” Matt said, “We’ve got to get back to town, I may have to go to work.”

Sure enough a large part of the town was without power. It was chaotic. The plane – identical to the one Tim was flying – crashed shortly after takeoff narrowly missing a Super 8 motel, a drive-in packed with suppertime customers, and someone’s garage. It crashed through power lines, breaking off 2 poles, and then a willow tree before landing in someone’s front yard.

Matt and the rest of the line crew worked until 1:30 in the morning before getting power restored to everyone except the drive-in. (Yes, an old-fashioned drive-in where you eat in your car. But the waitresses don’t wear roller skates and poodle skirts anymore.) They couldn’t disturb the crash site until after the investigator came, so Sunday noon they got clearance and worked all of Sunday afternoon also.

Taking away the plane. The cockpit is a burned out skeleton

The tree it ripped through. Can you imagine a plane dropping into your yard?

The Super 8 and the broken power pole next to it

The pilot was very lucky. Landing in the middle of town as he did, there were lots of people around that jumped in to pull him out of the plane before it burst into flames. He came away with a broken collarbone, a couple of crushed vertebrae, and chemical burns on his hands and face. It could have been so much worse, for him and for the people enjoying their supper at the drive-in. Close call, indeed.