Pilot Walks Away From 'Horrific' Crash

A BE95 Travel Air (file photo below) crashed Thursday just east of Safford Regional Airport in AZ due to apparent fuel exhaustion. Miraculously, the pilot was uninjured.

Forty-eight-year old Jerald Pate of Muskogee, OK was hauling equipment for a crew working a mine in near Safford, AZ. He told authorities he'd refueled at Austin, TX before departing for Safford. He said his fuel gages were reading improperly and he ran out of fuel.

According to the Arizona Courier, Pate said after his engines quit he tried "turning on an auxiliary tank," as the aircraft descended from 6000 ft, but he was unable to restart the engines. Following the crash, he walked the mile-and-a-half he lacked to make a landing at the airport.

The BE95 Travel Air holds 80 gallons and sports two Lycoming IO-360 engines. With full tanks -- depending on winds -- the 632 nm flight from Austin to Safford would be within the aircraft's performance capability. Weather was VFR with haze, but no wind information was available as of this writing.

Authorities first at the crash scene, a ravine just east of the airport, described it as "horrific."

Safford Airport Manager Doug Benson told the Courier, "I really can't conceive how anyone could have walked away from (the crash). How he went through all that sheet metal and Plexiglas without getting torn up is incredible."

Local medical personnel looked Pate over, but aside from bumps and bruises -- and a little dust -- he was unharmed. He refused to go to the hospital.

Sheriff's deputies drove to the crash scene to turned off the transmitting ELT. They described the wreck saying the fuselage was broken in half behind the front seats.

Deputies said they helped Pate remove the "mostly intact" construction equipment from the wreckage so he complete his delivery.

Let's be careful out there folks...

**   Report created 9/29/2006
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IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 9412Y        Make/Model: BE95      Description: 95 Travel Air
  Date: 09/28/2006     Time: 0000

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

LOCATION
  City: SAFFORD   State: AZ   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  CRASHED 1.5 MILES EAST OF SAFFORD, AZ DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION, SAFFORD, AZ

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: CLEAR SKY  WITH HAZE

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Pleasure      Phase: Cruise      Operation: OTHER

  Departed:                             Dep Date:           Dep. Time:     
  Destination:                          Flt Plan:              Wx Briefing: 
  Last Radio Cont: 
  Last Clearance: 

  FAA FSDO: SCOTTSDALE, AZ  (WP07)                Entry date: 09/29/2006

FMI: www.ntsb.gov