Thu, Oct 21, 2004
Dozens Tried To Help Him Land
It was a massive rescue effort that involved dozens of people
from St. George in Australia's Queensland Territory. In the end,
however, the were unable to save a 49-year old diabetic pilot who
had taken off from Bundaberg Tuesday, heading west.
The man radioed controllers that he wasn't feeling good
according to Mike Flanigan with the Queensland Fire and Rescue
Service. The pilot, whose name hasn't been released, told
controllers that he was falling in and out of consciousness.
Residents of St. George ran to help as they watched the aircraft
circle west of town. When they lost sight of the two-place
homebuilt, they sent an aircraft from Jones Air to try to guide the
stricken pilot to a safe landing.
But pilot Mick Kennedy told local reporters the diabetic pilot
was having trouble understanding the instructions he was
getting.
"We tried to talk him down but we weren't having any success,"
he said. "Everything he said to us was a statement rather than any
acknowledgement of what he heard. I just kept saying 'get your
wings level, get your wings level' and 'get your power back on, get
your power back on', but at the end of it that is not what
happened."
Kennedy said the aircraft appeared to run out of fuel. After
that, said Kennedy, "It was just a slow descending turn on to the
ground."
Scott Jones, general manager of Jones Air, said his employees
and others Jones Air general manager Scott Jones said their company
and others "tried everything they could to get him on the ground.
It was dreadful... a tragedy."
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