Friend Comes To His Rescue

A pilot flying his SeaRay homebuilt amphibian to the Lakeland Fly-In last week fell short of his destination, when his plane crashed after takeoff from a central Florida lake... but he's alive to tell the tale, thanks in large part to the efforts of his friend.

Along with fellow seaplane flyer Phil Mendelson, pilot Bill Furr was departing Lake Jessup Thursday when his plane (file photo of type, shown below) suddenly nosed over into the water. Mendelson, who had taken off before Furr, was shocked when he looked back and saw his friend's plane upside down in the water.

"I had looked away briefly, and when I looked back, Bill's seaplane was upside down in the water. I didn't see his head, so I radioed in the emergency call," Mendelson told The Orlando Sentinel.

Mendelson wheeled his plane around, and set back down on the lake, known for having a large alligator population. As he approached the wreckage, he was relieved to see Furr pop up in the water -- his face bloodied, but still alive.

"It was such a violent entry that it broke the windshield canopy away, which helped him get out of the aircraft," Mendelson said.

Furr managed to pull himself partly onto the floating wreckage of his plane... but he wasn't out of the woods, and Mendelson was afraid to try pulling him up any more, out of concern for possible spinal injuries.

"I was worried because his face was bleeding, and there was blood in the water and there were five or six alligators in the distance," Mendelson said. "I didn't want him to pass out and drown."

So Mendelson instead fast-taxied his plane over to the shore near his house, a quarter-mile away, and got into his fishing boat. "By the time I got back, Bill was bleeding quite a bit worse. He said his leg was hurting. He didn't want to get in my boat at first. But I insisted. He kept telling me he couldn't, so I sort of hoisted him into the boat while trying to be as gentle as possible."

By the time Mendelson turned his boat back to shore, an ambulance was waiting to transport Furr to a local hospital. He is now recovering from a broken ankle, nose, and numerous lacerations.

"I'm going to live, I guess, but I could have easily bought the farm," Furr told the paper Friday from his hospital bed. "All I remember is powering up to take off, and that was pretty much it," Furr said. "The next thing I knew I was sitting on the upside-down plane and my buddy was coming by boat to get me."

A preliminary investigation by the FAA discovered a loose locating bolt on the SeaRay's horizontal stabilizer, Mendelson said. That led the stabilizer to separate from Furr's plane.

"For Bill, [the impact] was like running into a brick wall," he added. "But the airplane took the brunt of it."

Mendelson wound up driving to Lakeland on Friday.

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 815Z        Make/Model: EXP       Description: SEA REY
  Date: 04/10/2008     Time: 1240

  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Substantial

LOCATION
  City: SANFORD   State: FL   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  AIRCRAFT CRASHED ONTO LAKE JESSUP UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, 3.5 MILES
  FROM SANFORD, FL

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: 1247Z SP 04005KT 10SM CLR 21/17 A3007

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Unknown      Phase: Unknown      Operation: OTHER

  FAA FSDO: ORLANDO, FL  (SO15)                   Entry date: 04/11/2008

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.searay.com