What could have happend?

[StalledOut]

What were you thinking? comes to mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2 survive plane crash

Friday, Feb. 9, 2007

Anchorage, Alaska - Officials with the National Transportation Safety Administration say a single-engine Aero Commander 100, registered to Jim Bingman of Dillingham, took off yesterday at about 6:30 p.m. from Togiak with one unnamed passenger on board and headed to Dillingham.

About an hour later, Bingman's wife called to report him overdue and an emergency locator transmitter was detected midway between Togiak and Dillingham.

A National Guard helicopter was sent to the scene and got within two miles but was turned back by bad weather. The crew tried again at first light and found both occupants in the plane in good condition, suffering from either no or minor injuries. They were sent to the hospital in Dillingham.

Weather in Togiak was relatively good last night but bad in Dillingham, with a 400-foot ceiling, half-mile visibility and freezing rain.

Because the pilot survived, NTSB will not go to the scene but will interview the pilot later today.

 

[mvivion]

Stalled,

As our friend Pogo said: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Pretty much says it all.

MTV

 

[d dyre]

Having flown a number of summers in the Dillingham area I am not surprised at all with that story.

 

[dpearce]

Stalled,

As our friend Pogo said: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Pretty much says it all.

MTV

The quote from the pilot in the last couple of paragraphs of this article confirms this rather well unfortunately. http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=6065334

 

[mvivion]

The Good Lord does care for small children, animals and fools, they say.

Or something like that anyway.

Pogo got it right.

MTV

 

[PIPER J5.5]

we're all paying for his plane through rising insurance rates

 

[scout88305]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Two Alaska men are crediting their faith for surviving a plane crash, a quarter-mile slide down a mountain and a night in the wilderness.

The two church workers were found by searchers Friday morning, a day after their single-engine Aero Commander crashed into a snowy mountain.

Pilot Jim Bingman, 69, and passenger Gavin Thompson, 54, walked away from the crash and spent the night in a makeshift shelter more than a mile away. A helicopter rescue crew spotted them waving clothing and jumping up and down.

"We wanted them to know we were alive," Thompson said.

The plane went down above tree line on a mountain about 10 miles west of Manokotak, a village in the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge.

Alaska State Troopers and the Alaska Air National Guard tried to reach the plane by zeroing in on its emergency locator beacon late Thursday but were turned back by stormy weather. The search resumed early Friday.

By Friday afternoon, Bingman and Thompson were back at their homes in Dillingham, calling their experience unreal.

"This wasn't just a wheels-up bad landing or an engine (cuts out) and lands on the tundra. This was a bang. I mean, this was the real thing," said Thompson, a South African who moved to Dillingham less than a year ago from New Zealand. "And for us to walk away from that is nothing but an outright blessing from God."

The plane left Togiak on Thursday afternoon on a planned 45-minute flight to Dillingham. The men had been building a Seventh-day Adventist church in Togiak, a village of about 800 people 70 miles west of Dillingham. Last week, they were putting finishing touches on the baptismal font, they said.

The aircraft was about halfway to Dillingham when Bingman, a pilot for nearly 50 years, suddenly flew into whiteout conditions near a steep mountain, he said. He tried to turn around.

"And, all of a sudden, I looked out the front and there was a bush right in front of my nose," he said.

The plane touched down and sped quickly along a plateau until it ran out of flat ground. The plane went over the side on its back and slid, spinning. Thompson felt like a witness watching his own death, he told the Anchorage Daily News.

"There was stuff, twigs, everything, coming up through the windshield spraying stuff up at us," Bingman said. "Everything in the airplane was falling out and being left behind."

It was like an out-of-control toboggan ride, he said.

"You'd be looking right down the hill, then next thing you know your head is looking right up the hill where you'd come. I was just nervous we were going to run into a rock cliff," Bingman said.

As the plane came to a stop, the men were hanging upside down, still strapped in. Bingman had a tiny scratch on his cheek. Thompson said he suffered a bruise the size of a dime above his eye.

They walked more than a mile to find a spot out of the wind and set up camp for the night. The men huddled in alders and used branches and an engine blanket, used to keep the engine warm in extreme cold, to fashion a rough shelter.

Temperatures dropped to about 20 degrees.

"We mostly just shivered our way through the night," Bingman said.

They had no food or sleeping bags. Their required survival gear had been forgotten in the back of a pickup truck at the Dillingham airport. They had matches but it was too wet to start a fire, Bingman said.

Thompson's wife, Judith Thompson, a Dillingham schoolteacher, called authorities when the two did not return.

Returned to Dillingham on Friday, they declined medical treatment, troopers said.

"I think the Lord was looking after us. Because we're Christians," Bingman said. "He said he promises he will watch us."

"But why did the plane crash? I don't have those answers until I get to heaven. I guess I could ask him once I get up there."

 

[Student Pilot]

"I think the Lord was looking after us. Because we're Christians," Bingman said. "He said he promises he will watch us."

That's really good, wonder how he told them, on one of those Sunday morning "Give us your money" religious joke programs?

But why did the plane crash? I don't have those answers until I get to heaven. I guess I could ask him once I get up there."

You do really wonder about some people, I wonder how they will find "Him" with 950,378,654,299,996,003 christians wandering round?

I apoligize in advance for offending religious folk but I couldn't help myself.

 

[TrapAK]

I'm glad they survived.
They were lucky.
Period.
You don't have to be a narrow minded blind faith follower to get lucky!

 

[Siwash]

Amen to that! No pun intended.

Si