Stearman Pilot Talks About Fatal Accident

Wisconsin pilot Mark Strub didn't know the name of his passenger when he took off from Alexander Field in his 1941 Stearman PT-13. The Michigan woman wanted to go for a ride at the Children's Miracle Network Balloon Rally. Strub was giving 10-minute rides in the open-cockpit aircraft.

They were going to do aerobatics, something 39-year old Kimberly Reed specifically asked for. It wasn't an unusual request -- other passengers asked to perform a few stunts during their ten-minute ride.

But in this case, the ride ended in tragedy. The bright red Stearman hit some power lines over Nepco Lake, became inverted and landed in about three feet of water.

"I was upside down in the water, drowning, thinking, 'My God, I've got to get to my passenger,'" he said. "It wasn't possible." Strub spoke in an exclusive interview with the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune.

When Strub couldn't rescue his passenger alone, he ran a half-mile for help, ending up at the Domtar Industries paper mill. There, he called 911.

But to no avail. Kimberly Reed was dead of an apparently broken neck. A coroner's report said she probably died on impact.

"I didn't even know her name," Strub said, strong emotion filling his voice. "She came up to me, of course, trusting me with her life, and wanted the experience (of the flight).

"That's why I was there. How did that turn tragic? I have no real answer," Strub told the Daily Tribune. "We were flying along and ran into the wires. I knew there were wires across the river. There are wires that cross the river all over the place. Did I know at that moment (the wires were so close)? No, otherwise I wouldn't have been there."

Why was he flying so low that he impacted the power lines? "Maybe for the same reason we were first out there doing aerobatics. That was her request," he told the Wisconsin Rapids newspaper. "That was what she wanted to do. We were both equipped with parachutes. The plane was an Army trainer to teach aerobatics. That's what it was made for."

Now, Strub told the paper, he relives the accident every ten minutes. "How do I manage? It varies. Do I think I'm lucky? I think I'm unlucky to be here, until I look at my daughters and realize I'm here for them. And then I realize someone (else) is not here. Every now and then, you have one of those dreams that you wake up from, and you're ecstatic that it was just a dream.

"I know it's real," he continued. "But, man, oh, man, I wish I could just wake up and have it be a nightmare. But I know it won't go away. I know it happened. I'm afraid to go down the road and have someone in the truck with me. I don't want someone's life in my hands."

FAA Preliminary Accident Report

IDENTIFICATION
 Regis#: 86600    Make/Model: ST75   Description: 75 KAYDET (PT-13, PT-17, PT-18, PT-27, N
 Date: 08/28/2004   Time: 1430

 Event Type: Accident  Highest Injury: Fatal   Mid Air: N  Missing: N
 Damage: Destroyed

LOCATION
 City: WISCONSIN RAPIDS      State: WI  Country: US

DESCRIPTION
 ACFT HIT THE POWELINES AND CRASHED INTO THE WISCONSIN RIVER, TWO PERSONS
 WERE ON BOARD, ONE WAS FATALLY INJURED, ACFT WAS DESTROYED, WISCONSIN
 RAPIDS, WI

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

WEATHER: METAR KISW 281345Z AUTO 07008KT 10SM CLR 16/11 A3009           
                                          
OTHER DATA
 Activity: Unknown   Phase: Unknown   Operation: General Aviation

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

 FAA FSDO: MILWAUKEE, WI (GL13)         Entry date: 08/30/2004

(photos by Doug Alft, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, used by permission)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov