Had Been Trying To Stop Another Airplane That Was Rolling Away

A pilot was fatally injured Thursday in Alaska when he jumped out of his airplane on the ground to try to stop another aircraft that was rolling away and ran into the turning propeller of his own airplane.

The pilot was 62-year-old Clark Baldwin of Wasilla, AK. According to a National Parks Service release, he had been instructing a small group of pilots in off-airport landings on a gravel bar on the Chitistone River located in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. His plane was one of a group of four Super Cubs participating in the exercise.

The Alaska Daily News reports that, according to the National Parks Service, the four planes had stopped on the gravel bar but left their engines running. When one of the planes began to roll forward, Baldwin, the owner and operator of the Alaska Cub Training Specialists flight school, jumped out of his plane to help stop the other from getting away. He ran directly into his own propeller, according to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve chief ranger Peter Christian.

Christian characterized the incident as "just a tragic accident."

(Piper PA-18 Super Cub pictured in file photo. Not incident airplane)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov