Doctor pens goodbye note as plane plunges

[Elmore Furth]

Bad luck.

A doctor who apparently perished with three others in a medical flight crash wrote a goodbye note to all their families and friends seven minutes before their plane plummeted into Lake Michigan.

Dr. James Hall stuffed the note into his medical bag as the Cessna's engine was failing Friday morning.

Authorities rescued the plane's pilot and recovered the doctors bag with the note inside, but they gave up hope of finding alive the four people missing since the plane went down while flying a cancer patient to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

It reads:

“Dear All,

“We love you. We lost power over the middle (of) Lake Michigan and turning back.


“We are praying to God that all (will) be taken care of.

“We love you. Jim.”



Doctor pens goodbye note as plane plunges

[gateley]

1. Rest in peace, Jim and fellow passengers.

:cry:

[grace0418]

2. So sad. How terrified they must have been.

:(

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. All those families will treasure that letter forever...

So terribly heartbreaking...

He had incredible presence of mind...

So much love, lost in the middle of Lake Michigan, only to be found in this poignant note...

Safe passage to you, Jim, and all your friends ...

:cry:

[glitch]

14. +infinity. nt

[Boojatta]

17. families?

The letter says, "Dear All." I presume that the doctor was thinking of the Internal Revenue Service and perhaps some other government agencies. There's no mention of families in that farewell letter.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

20. All=families

I really rather doubt he was thinking about the IRS or other gov't. agencies.

Would you, at a time like that, be thinking about the IRS, or about your loved ones?

[Binka]

22. That Was A Very Pathetic/Weird Response From That Poster Peggy

It has NO place here. NONE.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

25. Thanks, my dear Binka...

I did kind of wonder about it too...

:wtf:

[roguevalley]

27. this is beyond sad. we lost a couple of crew up here. nice people

who loved helping people. they were helping someone. Jeez. go crap in someone else's thread.

[kestrel91316]

4. That was a HORRIBLE storm on Friday. My BIL in Whitefish Bay reported

9" of rainfall in about 90 minutes. I looked at the weather radar and there was a huge band of RED sweeping across Milwaukee and the surrounding communities and then east over the lake.

[sandnsea]

5. Where is this weather coming from?

I'm in the PNW and it's not coming from here, unless it's way up in Canada. Is there some kind of shift in the jet stream or something?

[tavalon]

7. It's a Nino year

But, the strange weather fluctuations are a predicted result of global climate change.

Of course, here in the PNW, we're in our usual drought season.

[kestrel91316]

15. Summer thunderstorms in the Midwest are an annual occurrence.

Since time immemorial.

Worsening levels of rain in the storms of late probably have something to do with global warming.

[Occulus]

19. A coworker of mine told me last night

that a local meteorologist recently explained it as increased humidity generated by the high levels of irrigation occurring in the Plains states. This is altering the humidity of the atmosphere above the Plains states and prevailing winds then push that airmass east. The storms we've seen in the past week bear out that conclusion; they all tended to "blow up" after crossing that particular region of the country.

We in Michigan already know how this works because of Lake Michigan, which generates its own weather systems, especially in winter. "Lake-effect snow" is a term that has been used here for my entire lifetime, and certainly much longer.

[Alcibiades]

6. My dad refuses to fly these things

He's been a professional pilot since before I was born 42 years ago, has been flying in civil aviation for about ten years now, and has god knows how many thousands of hours. He flies King Airs nowadays, and has in the past refused to get certified to fly small, single-engine aircraft such as the Cessna 206 because of the possibility of engine failure, which was the apparent culprit in this crash. Apparently, you want to have two engines, just so you can land safely in the event of engine failure.



I know these things are cheap, which is why they are popular, but when you add up the value of human life, they would have been better off getting a more expensive aircraft for their life flight operation.

[MajorChode]

8. Statistics don't really bear that premise out

When you compare apples to apples, adding a 2nd engine really doesn't buy you more safety and in some instances you get less. There are quite a few dynamics at work other than just redundancy = safety improvement. With all other things being equal, two engines means twice the likelihood of engine failure, and there have been plenty of fatal accidents involving a single engine failure on twin aircraft.
http://www.avweb.com/news/usedacft/182809-1.html

You're much better off from a reliability standpoint moving from a piston single to a turboprop single vs going from a piston single to a piston twin.

Thousands of box haulers flying single engine Cessna Caravans take to the skies every night flying packages for FedEx, DHL, etc., and the accident rate involving engine failures is practically non-existent.

[TheMadMonk]

9. You're still far, far more likely to die in your car.

And as been demonstrated by a fair few twin engine crashes, extra engines can't save you from two things. Bad fuel and bad maintenance.

The extra saftey factor of a second engine is of course not to be sneezed at. However, a parachute for the plane is a far cheaper option. One that provides saftey bonuses (far safer water ditching being very applicable in this case) that extra engines can not. Arguments can be made either way.

[Statistical]

10. Cheap? a single engine aircraft is going to run $80,000 to $240,000.

Dual engine is going to start at half a million.

Engine failure is very rare, and in good weather is recoverable with a little luck.

Much more likely to die in car accident, drowning in a pool, or getting hit by an idiot on cellphone riding a bike.

[MajorChode]

11. You can pay as little or as much as you want for a single or a twin

On the used market, you can get an older aircraft for less than the price of a new car(even a cheap new car). On the new market, even a basic single will run you closer to $400K for the most popular models and can get considerably more expensive depending on how high and fast you want to go.

On the used market, you can get some twins for relatively cheap at least as compared to comparable singles. However, the operating costs are the problem. A "cheap" twin can get pretty expensive when you find out you'll be shelling out $50-100K to overhaul two engines.

A running joke is after an engine failure, the 2nd engine gets you all the way to the scene of the crash.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

16. Regardless AvGas is $4.40/gallon around here. When the lead ban takes effect, who knows what will

replace it.

AvGas is the only leaded fuel still available in the US. When the ban of any leaded fuel takes effect its not clear what will happen to most of the light airplanes in the US.

[MajorChode]

18. I'm not convinced there will be a ban

The actual environmental impact has yet to be established, and there's a very powerful movement against any ban. At any rate, my airplane is certified for unleaded fuel.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

21. I am...its just a matter of time

The requirement was to find a way forward, and nothing has really been done. Apparently Lycoming and Continental are at odds over approaches as well: http://www.pacificflyer.com/2010/05/avgas-on-the-way-out/

Wikipedia has decent coverage of this (surprisingly): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avgas

EPA Links
- http://www.epa.gov/oms/aviation.htm
- http://yosemite.epa.gov/opei/rulegate.nsf/byRIN/2060-AP79

Friends of the Earth is pushing it as if free radicals
- http://www.foe.org/epa-proposes-rule-phase-out-lead-aviation-fuel
- http://www.freeradicalsmag.com/2009/10/28/getting-lead-out-of-airplanes/


I had thought do build an experimental a/c in my quasi retirement. However, until its clear what gas will be available, I am thinking I will hold of on making a commitment. Cozy has been my design of choice so far.

What do you fly?

[MajorChode]

24. It is a matter of time, the question is how much time

Decades ago people were once worried about the transponder requirement which has yet to materialize other than in very limited areas and even then can be waived. People were worried about the 406 ELT requirement which has yet to materialize. People were worried about changes to allow more aviation frequency channels which has yet to materialize.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Cozy you want to build. Lycoming should have approval to run 93 octane auto-gas in the O-360 and IO-360 within months.

I have a 182 with a Continental O-470. I have the STC for mogas, but I rarely use it due to sparse availability.

[sufrommich]

12. My parents and sister saw this St. Ignace plane crash

just minutes after it happened.A grandfather and 3 of his grandchildren, all died except one of his grandsons.

http://www.cheboygannews.com/breaking/x380560688/Four-perish-in-St-Ignace-plane-crash

[glitch]

13. When people are dying there is one thing that is crystal clear to them: Love is all there is.

It's the only thing that matters.

[Liberal_in_LA]

23. good comment

[glitch]

26. Unfortunately I know this from experience. Nevertheless, it's a good thing to know. nt

:cry:

[roguevalley]

28. we made CNN news when our Hawaiian air jet lost ballast and

fell from 33000 feet to 10000. I remember putting my arms around my mother and little neice and feeling if we could just get to 10K the pressure would even out and we would level off, which we eventually did. But I will tell you, you don't think about anything but the love you had, those who gave it to you and how much you want to keep giving it back. They were right. Love is truly all there is.