Pilot Aiding Police Pursuit Shot
# Safely Landed Plane Without Incident

May 5, 2005 1:18 pm US/Eastern
CLAY CENTER, KAN (AP) Hit in the head by a shot fired from the ground,
pilot Mike Spicer managed, with the help of his passenger, to get his
plane safely back to the Clay Center airport.

Spicer, a Clay County commissioner who manages the municipal airport,
was pressed into service last Friday by authorities who were looking
for a man who sped away when a deputy tried to stop him for illegal
registration of his pickup truck.

Sheriff Chuck Dunn called Spicer, figuring he could get his Cessna 150
in the air near this north central Kansas community sooner than the
Kansas Highway Patrol plane.

Before he took off, Spicer heard from Arnie Knoettgen, mayor of the
nearby community of Morganville. Knoettgen, an emergency medical
technician and a reserve deputy, volunteered to join him in the search.

Shortly after leaving the airport, Spicer spotted an abandoned truck in
a ravine about three miles south of town. After a couple of passes,
Spicer saw what he first thought was a feed sack in a field. But he
realized it was a shirtless man in blue jeans, lying face down among
the green, 12-inch plants.

Knoettgen verified that the man was the suspect and radioed the
sheriff.

Spicer, 55, told The Clay Center Dispatch he was leaning forward,
holding the plane in a turn when he heard a "crack" from the ground and
the Plexiglass window on his left popped, but he felt nothing.

"It all happened so fast," Spicer said. "Neither one of us realized
what was happening at first."

A shot fired from the ground slammed into the plane's passenger's side,
whizzing by Knoettgen and striking Spicer in the forehead above his
left eye.

Spicer said the shot was fired from a handgun, believed to be a .44
Magnum, and that it was "just lucky" that it hit the plane, which he
estimated was several hundred feet in the air.

"After he shot us, he got up and ran toward the trees," Spicer said.

The plane began to drop, and Knoettgen reached over and pulled back on
the stick while Spicer pushed in the throttle for a climbing turn to
head back to the airport. Spicer also pushed his hooded sweatshirt
against the 3-inch gash in his head, trying to stem the heavy flow of
blood.

"I knew I had been hit in the head, but I couldn't feel anything,"
Spicer said. "That's what really scared me."

Both men kept telling each other they were OK, although Spicer admitted
later he "really thought this was it" and began to think of being
reunited with an infant son who died of meningitis nearly 25 years ago.

"Then I realized I had to get Arnie back," he said. "That kind of
brought me back to reality."

"I knew I may have to get the plane back to the airport," Knoettgen,
who had never taken off or landed, told the Dispatch. "I thought I had
a chance to put it down if someone could talk me through it."

Spicer kept giving instructions on the flight back to the airport,
about three miles away. He also radioed his wife, Pam, who was at the
airport, to call for an ambulance.

"He told me he had been shot in the head, but he kept sending
instructions," she said. "So I knew it must not have been as bad as it
sounded."

As they neared the airport, Spicer tightened his shoulder harness to
make sure he didn't slump forward should he pass out.

"I knew if I collapsed on the yoke, Arnie would have no chance of
getting the plane down," he said.

The plane came in low and both men recall the landing as a pretty good
one. Police, an ambulance and firetrucks were waiting on the runway.
After only about 2=BD hours at the Clay County Medical Center, Spicer
was back home.

"It just wasn't my time," he said.

Michael Michaud, 28, of Clay Center, was arrested Saturday morning. He
is in the Clay County Jail on $1 million bond awaiting a preliminary
hearing May 18.

Michaud is charged with two counts of attempted murder, criminal
discharge of a weapon at an occupied vehicle resulting in bodily harm,
criminal possession of a firearm and attempting to elude an officer.
The sheriff's office said drug charges are also pending against him in
an unrelated case.
--
Gene Seibel
Hangar 131 - http://pad39a.com/gene/plane.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.