Fatal plane crash sparks heroic acts
Witnesses rush to a downed Cessna at a College Park golf course; 1 of 2
aboard dies.





The plane was going down -- fast -- and the pilot seemed to be trying to
wrestle it onto the smooth grass of the 18th fairway.

Brandon "Bosco" Cashen could see the Cessna in his rearview mirror as he
was driving past Orlando's Dubsdread Golf Course late Tuesday afternoon.
Its wings were wobbling back and forth as it skimmed the treetops,
barely missing golfers and leaving College Park residents speechless.

Witnesses said the pilot seemed as though he might be able to land
safely, but at the last instant the right wing dipped too low, clipped
the ground and sent the plane flipping into a concrete electrical pole
by the 18th green.

Cashen barely had time to pull over. Everything was moving fast, but
then seemed to slow down. The broken power lines were arcing with
electricity, but Cashen didn't stop to think: He ran to the plane as
fast as he could.

Before the night was over, one person aboard the plane was dead, and
Cashen was being called a hero.

A solid 26-year-old general contractor, Cashen had hoisted himself onto
the wing of the plane's twisted wreckage.

Other witnesses said there were screams from inside the Cessna, someone
calling for help. Cashen doesn't remember.

"I just didn't think," he would say later. "I wanted to make sure
everybody was OK."

Cashen could see two men inside. Steve Schieber, a 26-year-old with a
commercial-pilot rating, was sitting in the left seat. Dan Lawlor, 33,
was in the right seat, unconscious. The two men were co-workers at
Showalter Flying Service in Orlando, friends who had rented the plane
for the day.

Cashen struggled desperately with Schieber's safety harness but couldn't
free him.

Should he wait for firefighters? But what was that smell?

Fuel.

Fuel was leaking from the plane, and the power lines still were sputtering.

People were pouring out of the Dubsdread restaurant. A crowd of 30 or
more onlookers stood back.

Cashen screamed for a knife, maybe a steak knife from inside the
restaurant, anything to cut the harness.

"Someone threw me a pocketknife, and I just started cutting through his
belt," he said.

He grabbed Schieber by the waist of his trousers, lifted him out and
lowered him into the uplifted arms of others on the ground.

Firefighters arrived and yelled for everyone to get back. The fuel could
go up at any second, or someone could get electrocuted.

"Smoke started coming out, so everyone backed away," said Magda I.
Torres, a reporter at nearby 1440 AM (WPRD) radio who saw the crash.

Cashen stayed atop the wreckage.

He tried to reach Lawlor, but Schieber's empty seat was in the way. He
kicked it, over and over, he doesn't remember how many times, until it
broke free. He tossed the seat out and reached for the other man.

The harness, again. The pocketknife, again.

Firefighters were there now, a group of them, holding a rescue basket
above their heads. Cashen lowered Lawlor into the basket as gently as he
could.

The crash site quickly took on a circuslike air, with more than 100
onlookers gathered around yellow crime-scene tape. Mothers pushed
strollers by as a medical helicopter landed on the fairway.

Lawlor died in surgery at Orlando Regional Medical Center. Schieber
remained in critical condition late Tuesday.

From his home in Phoenix, Dennis Lawlor choked back tears as he talked
about his son's love of flying, scuba diving and in-line skating.

"He was very active, very outgoing," Lawlor said. "He is going to be
missed."

Lawlor said his son grew up in Ohio and was in the Air Force from 1990
to 1994. He later attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in
Daytona Beach, graduating in 1997. Lawlor also said his son flew charter
planes for Showalter and passed the Air Force Reserve officer test with
flying colors. He planned to join the Reserve and dreamed of becoming a
commercial-airline pilot.

The Cessna was registered to James Grady, the owner of another small
plane that crashed into Lake Barton with a student pilot at the helm in
May. Grady is director of CAP Flying group, a private flying club based
at Orlando Executive Airport.

Grady wasn't aboard the plane Tuesday. Orlando Fire Department
administrators say the Cessna radioed the airport tower at 4:43 p.m. to
report a loss of oil pressure. It is a potentially fatal problem that
can cause an engine to seize, Assistant Fire Chief Greg Hoggatt said.
Witnesses reported the plane came in silently, with no engine noise.

Firefighters anticipated a crash and rushed to the airport.

"The pilot was stating that he did not feel he could make the field,"
Hoggatt said. "He was, in turn, looking for a field, looking for
someplace where he could attempt to land the plane away from buildings,
away from structures, away from citizens."

"He knew he was going down," Hoggatt said. "He's trying to bring in an
aircraft that's on bad oil pressure, the engine is failing, and he's
doing everything to keep it up."

At 4:47 p.m., the plane crashed near the 18th green, its last seconds
captured on video from a WKMG-Channel 6 news helicopter. The plane
temporarily knocked out power to about 900 homes and businesses.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation
Safety Board are investigating the crash.

"From what we can speculate, it looks like he was attempting to use the
18th fairway of the country club to try and land this plane in a short
distance," Hoggatt said. "He did an excellent job. This could have been
a catastrophe."

Tina Seller of Maitland was on the driving range when she saw the plane
flying low and floundering.

"It started to kind of circle and tried to come around. What it was
trying to do was land on the fairway, but it ended up on the . . .
pole," she said. "Those people who got him out, they were heroic."