You Just Never Know

Last week a close friend and crop duster died as a result of injuries
when he experienced an engine failure after takeoff. He put it down
just fine, tore off the tailwheel and the gear stuck into the mud
causing an extreme short field stop. the gear was bent back under the
tail area, his seat belt and shoulder harness failed and he suffered
major crush injuries to his chest and abdomen. He was able to exit the
aircraft, walked around for a couple of minutes, talked to some of the
crew, said he didn't feel so good, then collapsed and died of internal
bleeding right there.
I helped him get his first ag seat about 10 years ago flying an Ag Cat
with the company I flew for. Then I helped him get his first turbine
seat some 5-6 years later. When I talked to him shortly before he died,
he told me he now had about 6,000 hours of good time logged and life
was good.
Gonna miss him and so will many who knew Big John Shanahan Ceres, CA.
RIP my brother
a saddened Ol Shy & Bashful

wrote in message
oups.com...
Last week a close friend and crop duster died as a result of injuries
when he experienced an engine failure after takeoff.

Gonna miss him and so will many who knew Big John Shanahan Ceres, CA.
RIP my brother
a saddened Ol Shy & Bashful

As always, our prayers and sympathies are with you, the pilot and his family
and friends. These words are little comfort, but all we have to give.

Was this a turbine?
--
Jim in NC

Jim
Yep.....Thrush. He had over a thousand hours in them with the same
operator. It was his 4th load of the day, 3 days into the season and he
was supposed to be off.
Of course it sticks in my mind when I take off with a load now and will
for a few more days/weeks.Where I am flying there is zero margin for
error and an engine failure means a crash pure and simple with little
chance of walking away. Spraying timber in the mountains of Oregon with
a turbine helicopter.
Ol S&B

wrote in message
oups.com...
Last week a close friend and crop duster died as a result of injuries
when he experienced an engine failure after takeoff. He put it down
just fine, tore off the tailwheel and the gear stuck into the mud
causing an extreme short field stop. the gear was bent back under the
tail area, his seat belt and shoulder harness failed and he suffered
major crush injuries to his chest and abdomen. He was able to exit the
aircraft, walked around for a couple of minutes, talked to some of the
crew, said he didn't feel so good, then collapsed and died of internal
bleeding right there.
I helped him get his first ag seat about 10 years ago flying an Ag Cat
with the company I flew for. Then I helped him get his first turbine
seat some 5-6 years later. When I talked to him shortly before he died,
he told me he now had about 6,000 hours of good time logged and life
was good.
Gonna miss him and so will many who knew Big John Shanahan Ceres, CA.
RIP my brother
a saddened Ol Shy & Bashful

Sorry about that, selwaykid. My prayers are with the pilot, his family, and
his friends (including you). Fly safe...

My condolences go out to you and his family and close friends.
Very sorry to hear this... sounds like he was an excellent pilot.

wrote:
Last week a close friend and crop duster died as a result of injuries
when he experienced an engine failure after takeoff. He put it down
just fine, tore off the tailwheel and the gear stuck into the mud
causing an extreme short field stop. the gear was bent back under the
tail area, his seat belt and shoulder harness failed and he suffered
major crush injuries to his chest and abdomen. He was able to exit the
aircraft, walked around for a couple of minutes, talked to some of the
crew, said he didn't feel so good, then collapsed and died of internal
bleeding right there.
I helped him get his first ag seat about 10 years ago flying an Ag Cat
with the company I flew for. Then I helped him get his first turbine
seat some 5-6 years later. When I talked to him shortly before he died,
he told me he now had about 6,000 hours of good time logged and life
was good.
Gonna miss him and so will many who knew Big John Shanahan Ceres, CA.
RIP my brother
a saddened Ol Shy & Bashful

Here in the Saginaw Michigan area we lost two pilots in recent years,
same spraying company... Two summers ago the owner/operator hired a
young fella to fly one of his two turbine planes... The young fella
supposedly had several years of active spraying and was apparently
flying well for a number of weeks... One day he pulled up hard up at
the end of the row, whip stalled and stuffed it straight into the
ground...
The next summer the owner went under the wires on about the 30th pass,
for unknown reasons, hooked the wire cutter on the vertical stab on the
cable TV run, which has a stainless steel wire rope suspending it,
ripped the tail feathers off and stuffed it... He was another one who
was talking until he bled out internally...The widow has government
contracts and I'm told has bought more planes and hired pilots...

As much as I love airplanes and flying, I have never once had the urge
to try spraying...


denny

On 27 Feb 2005 20:34:51 -0800, wrote in
.com::

his seat belt and shoulder harness failed

Has there been any investigation into why that occurred? Is
inspection of the belts a required part of the annual inspection? Are
they finite life parts? Were they factory installed? It sounds like
he'd have been okay if the belts didn't fail.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Last week a close friend and crop duster died as a result of injuries
when he experienced an engine failure after takeoff. He put it down
just fine, tore off the tailwheel and the gear stuck into the mud
causing an extreme short field stop. the gear was bent back under the
tail area, his seat belt and shoulder harness failed and he suffered
major crush injuries to his chest and abdomen. He was able to exit the
aircraft, walked around for a couple of minutes, talked to some of the
crew, said he didn't feel so good, then collapsed and died of internal
bleeding right there.
I helped him get his first ag seat about 10 years ago flying an Ag Cat
with the company I flew for. Then I helped him get his first turbine
seat some 5-6 years later. When I talked to him shortly before he died,
he told me he now had about 6,000 hours of good time logged and life
was good.
Gonna miss him and so will many who knew Big John Shanahan Ceres, CA.
RIP my brother
a saddened Ol Shy & Bashful


I'm very sorry about this. I have unfortunately known what you must be
feeling myself more than once in my career, and I know how this feels.
When it comes to things like this, all of us are brothers.
Dudley

Larry Dighera wrote:
On 27 Feb 2005 20:34:51 -0800, wrote in
.com::

his seat belt and shoulder harness failed

Has there been any investigation into why that occurred? Is
inspection of the belts a required part of the annual inspection?
Are
they finite life parts? Were they factory installed? It sounds like
he'd have been okay if the belts didn't fail.

Larry
I talked with another ag pilot friend who visited the site and he spoke
to a lot of people. The aircraft hit on mud and buried the gear which
caused it to stop in about 30' from 100mph. I have no idea what the
equipment is ultimately fail rated at but I seem to recall its 30 pos G
or more.
It was said there was a maintenance problem too and you can bet all
factors will be looked at carefully before its decided to go to court
or not.
I can't speculate too much and that would be an exercise in futility
not being on the site to do a personal investigation.
Thanks to all of you for your condolences and I'll pass them on to his
young daughters.

I'm very sorry to hear of your loss.

Hope his example will lead more ag operators to change out the belts
annually or at least bienneally as ultra violet rays weaken them. I've
been reading of ag accidents over the last ten years or so where the
belts failed in what, at first look, seemed to be survivable impacts.
Turned out they were original with the airplane and had never been
replaced.

Also, gotta convince the guys to call the ambulance and go to the
hospital even if it doesn't seem all that bad at the time. We lose too
many ag pilots because they want to maintain an image of being tough
and won't go to the hospital or they don't realize that they are
actually hurt. Shock covers up a heck of a lot of injuries.

It's often the little things on older airplanes that bite us...fraying
wiring, seat belts weakened...

All the best,
Rick