If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
SR-22 Crash, with a twist
Gold Medal Olympic Wrestler Rulon Gardner Survives Plane Crash, Swims to
Safety in Cold Lake From FOX NEWS... Monday, February 26, 2007 SALT LAKE CITY ‹ Olympic wrestling champion Rulon Gardner lost a toe to frostbite after being stranded in the wilderness, impaled himself with an arrow and was involved in a serious motorcycle accident. In his latest escape from death, he survived a plane crash over the weekend into the aptly named Good Hope Bay on the Utah-Arizona border. "I think I'm really lucky," Gardner told CNN on Monday, "after everything I have been through." Gardner and two Utah brothers were rescued by a fisherman Sunday after swimming more than an hour in 44-degree water and spending the night without shelter. None suffered life-threatening injuries, authorities said. "It takes only about 30 minutes for someone swimming in 44-degree water to start suffering the effects of hypothermia, so the fact that they swam in it for an hour, not to mention surviving the plane crash and the night without fire or shelter, is pretty amazing," said Steven Luckesen, a district ranger at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. "If these guys were a cat with nine lives, they just used up three of them." (Story continues below) Advertise Here Advertisements Since delivering one of the great Olympic upsets at the 2000 Sydney Games, the 35-year-old Gardner has had a history of harrowing escapes. In 2002, he became stranded while snowmobiling in the Wyoming and lost a toe. Then in 2004, he was struck by an automobile while riding a motorcycle. Back in third grade, he punctured his abdomen with an arrow at a class show-and-tell. The lesson, Gardner said, is "hopefully teach people to be smarter about the choices they make." In his latest brush, Gardner was a passenger in a Cirrus SR 22 with pilot Randy Brooks and brother Leslie. They were looking at a houseboat from the air when the plane dipped into the water, Garfield County public information officer Becki Bronson said. "The plane went from 150 mph to none in about 2 seconds," Gardner told CNN. "Within about a half a second is when we knew that things went from a beautiful day, a beautiful afternoon, all the way to a pretty bad situation." Authorities were uncertain of the exact location of the crash and were investigating the cause. When he went into the water, Gardner said he quickly grabbed his coat. He remembered how cold he'd gotten after getting lost on the snowmobile five years ago. That's when the Brooks brothers told him to drop everything. "It's either your stuff or your life," Gardner recalled them saying. "I was really struggling." Gardner said he wasn't a good swimmer and was worried he'd be left alone in the water. "I said, 'Don't leave me. Come back and get me,"' he said. "They said, 'Hey, just relax, calm down. We're not leaving you. Get on your back, and start doing basically backstroke." Gardner said he didn't get too nervous about the water temperature. It "wasn't really anything I thought about because we were safe. We had just survived a plane wreck." Once they reached the shore, Gardner said, there were other concerns. He was wearing only a T-shirt and jeans, having kicked off his shoes to swim, and there were limited supplies. "We came together and we said, 'OK, let's try to dry our clothes out before the sun goes down.' "Nobody is going to see us before sunset because most of the boats had already gone by. I said let's dry everything out," he said. Gardner said they tried to build a small shelter out of the rocks. The three men huddled through the night to keep warm. Once they were rescued, Gardner and the brothers called a relative to take them for medical attention. "Miraculously, the three sustained no life-threatening injuries, mainly suffering from hypothermia injuries to their feet," Garfield County authorities said in a statement. Gardner stunned the Olympics seven years ago when he earned the gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling by ending Alexander Karelin's 13-year international winning streak. In 2004 in Athens, Gardner won the bronze medal, and in wrestling tradition, left his shoes on the mat as a symbolic way of announcing his retirement. In 2004, Gardner was on a motorcycle and going to wrestling practice when he crashed in Colorado Springs, Colo. He sustained no serious injuries even though he went over the top of his handlebars after his bike collided with a car. Gardner came away with abrasions to his left side and a sore right heel. In grade school, he injured himself with an arrow while his parents were out of town. He was taken to the emergency room and a doctor said Gardner had just missed puncturing a vital organ. |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
SR-22 Crash, with a twist
john smith wrote:
In his latest brush, Gardner was a passenger in a Cirrus SR 22 with pilot Randy Brooks and brother Leslie. They were looking at a houseboat from the air when the plane dipped into the water, Garfield County public information officer Becki Bronson said. I hate it when they do that. Most of us prefer to fly over boats, not along side them. G -- Mortimer Schnerd, RN mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
SR-22 Crash, with a twist
On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 19:26:51 -0800, john smith wrote
(in article ): In his latest brush, Gardner was a passenger in a Cirrus SR 22 with pilot Randy Brooks and brother Leslie. They were looking at a houseboat from the air when the plane dipped into the water, Garfield County public information officer Becki Bronson said. "The plane went from 150 mph to none in about 2 seconds," Gardner told CNN. "Within about a half a second is when we knew that things went from a beautiful day, a beautiful afternoon, all the way to a pretty bad situation." I could see something like that happening. If the pilot is looking at a houseboat and not flying the airplane, he might not realize how close to the lake surface he is. Well, I hope they find the plane and we get to find out more about it. -- Waddling Eagle World Famous Flight Instructor |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
SR-22 Crash, with a twist
john smith writes:
In his latest brush, Gardner was a passenger in a Cirrus SR 22 with pilot Randy Brooks and brother Leslie. They were looking at a houseboat from the air when the plane dipped into the water, Garfield County public information officer Becki Bronson said. The plane dipped into the water?? Something sounds strange here. -- Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
SR-22 Crash, with a twist
C J Campbell writes:
I could see something like that happening. If the pilot is looking at a houseboat and not flying the airplane, he might not realize how close to the lake surface he is. If he can see what's on the table in the kitchen, he's too low. -- Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail. |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
SR-22 Crash, with a twist
On Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:55:25 +0100, Mxsmanic wrote:
C J Campbell writes: I could see something like that happening. If the pilot is looking at a houseboat and not flying the airplane, he might not realize how close to the lake surface he is. If he can see what's on the table in the kitchen, he's too low. Nahhh. But if he can see the tooth marks on the gum UNDER the table, THEN he's too low. :-) Ron Wanttaja |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
SR-22 Crash, with a twist
"C J Campbell" wrote I could see something like that happening. If the pilot is looking at a houseboat and not flying the airplane, he might not realize how close to the lake surface he is. Only if you are trying to get low enough to see how the insides are furnished. Sounds almost like a "hey, y'all, watch this!" -- Jim in NC |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
SR-22 Crash, with a twist
C,
If the pilot is looking at a houseboat and not flying the airplane, ...he is no longer a pilot, merely an idiot. -- Thomas Borchert (EDDH) |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
SR-22 Crash, with a twist
On Feb 27, 7:57 am, Thomas Borchert
wrote: C, If the pilot is looking at a houseboat and not flying the airplane, ..he is no longer a pilot, merely an idiot. -- Thomas Borchert (EDDH) And notice, it is another Cirrus pilot.... I'm beginning to wonder... denny |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
SR-22 Crash, with a twist
Here is another version of the story: http://www.abc4.com/content/specials...9-a2c34663ed80 Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner was in a plane that crashed into Lake Powell on Saturday. He has had his brushes with death before; a motorcycle crash in 2004 and surviving a night in Wyoming's back country during a snowmobile outing. He lost a toe to frost bite in that ordeal but it pales in comparison to his latest story of survival. Gardner, his pilot friend Randy Brooks and Randy's brother, Les were returning from a day at Lake Powell on Brooks' house boat. They were making a return flight in Randy Brooks' Cirrus SR22 single engine plane over the lake. Gardner said they decided to fly low over the water. Brooks banked the plane to the left. "His brother [Les] said, 'watch the wheels,' and right as he said that we caught the first wheel. the left rear landing gear, and it skipped us and we skipped one more time," said Gardner, "that's when we made the direct impact with the water." The plane hit the water at 150 miles per hour. Gardner hit his head on the window on impact. The three men quickly got out of their safety belts and abandoned the sinking craft. Gardner said he tried to grab his coat but did not have time. The men jumped in the frigid water. It was just past 2:30 in the afternoon. Gardner said he was disoriented from the bump on his head and he sank quickly at first because of the muscle on his massive frame. He began to panic, he said, but his two friends told him to get on his back and paddle and that calmed him down. The trio was able to get their bearings and head out for the nearest shore which was at least a mile and a half away. Gardner said he focused and made one stroke at a time even though, he could not feel his hands. His goal was to get to the beach before nightfall. After nearly two hours in 44-degree water Gardner and his friends made it to shore. Exhausted, he tried to stand but was so numb nothing worked. When he was able to regain his motor function he started looking for his friends who had barely made it to land several hundred yards away. "I found them," said Gardner, "They were already in severe levels of hypothermia. Their bodies were shut down; no motor skills. They could not make rational decisions." He said they looked at him as if he were a ghost. They had thought he had drowned. It was now Gardner's turn to help his friends. That muscle and mass that almost pulled him under had helped insulate his body from the effects of hypothermia. He was able to think clearly and knew from his previous ordeal in frigid temperatures that the key was to stay focused. Gardner used his body temperature to get his friend's core temperatures up. When they became lucid they worked on drying what little clothing they had on before the sun went down. Gardner had shed his shoes during the swim to shore and one of the Brooks brothers took off his shirt. Gardner had a skimpy cotton T-shirt that he tucked his arms into and the Brook's tore open a long sleeve T-shirt and wore it together. They also built a makeshift wind wall. The men huddled. The brothers took turns laying on each other for warmth but because of Gardner's size he was only able to rotate his front and back away from the wind. The men kept this up all night. They took turns sleeping a few minutes at a time and continued to check on each other to make sure no one got in trouble. Gardner said they also prayed; together at first and then many silent prayers that they would survive; that they would be found soon. At 8:30 in the morning the huddled shivering men noticed a few boats on the lake but they were too far away to take notice. It was a bass fishing tournament. "There were only ten boats in the whole tournament," recalled Gardner. Only three boats came close enough to see and only one boat came near enough for the fishermen on board to take notice of Gardner and his friends. After 18 hours of enduring a plane crash, frigid water, hypothermia, and an overnight temperature of 27 degrees they were finally rescued. Gardner calls it "a miracle and a blessing" they were spotted. The boat that picked them up was leading the tournament but the fisherman said he was prompted to come into the area. "He said, 'Rulon, we would've never turned over here but for some reason we felt we should come over and fish in this area. It didn't make sense why we came over here,'" Gardner recalled. The three men were taken back to Bullfrog Marina where park ranger EMT's checked them for injuries. From there, pilot Randy Brooks' son-in-law flew them to the hospital in American Fork, where they were treated for severe hypothermia. Gardner said his family has joked with him that he used up several of his nine lives from his previous near-death experiences. He said this time he has used up at least two and possibly three more of those lives. He said it has occurred to him that maybe he has been preserved for a reason. "There may be a higher plan out there for me ... and you're always wondering what difference am I supposed to make," said Gardner. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
vampire or venom crash pic - wx904 crash.jpg (1/1) | [email protected] | Aviation Photos | 4 | January 1st 07 06:30 PM |
vampire or venom crash pic - wx904 crash.jpg (0/1) | [email protected] | Aviation Photos | 0 | December 30th 06 04:57 PM |
OTA -- a new twist to "call me when you land" | Roy Smith | General Aviation | 6 | June 15th 06 06:02 AM |
A new twist on complaints | Roger | Piloting | 37 | November 11th 05 08:50 AM |
Solid joystick (X-45 or HOTAS quality) with a *twist*? | Zenin | Simulators | 3 | January 26th 04 06:30 AM |