Mooney Down, 7/11 in Indiana

[M016576]

Jolie- your pictures and story are quite inspirational- at times even the most vigilant, proactive pilots will be dealt a crummy hand. All you can do is play your cards to the best of your ability and never give up. Never give up during the emergency- Never give up after the emergency. As cheesy as it sounds, it's like that line from Braveheart: "every man dies, not every man really lives."

[Danb]

MG. you are quite a woman....quite awesome!

[mooneygirl]

This from Mike's son, Nick on Facebook:

Mike Elliott continues to improve. He is more alert everyday and he knows everyone has their thoughts and prayers for him. They are going to see if he can start breathing on his own tomorrow.

Today we found Bobby Forsythe, his mom Peggy Perry, and Stan. These people are why my dad is alive today. It really speaks to a persons character to run into a burning airplane. Stan called me today and we spoke about how he helped as he and Bobby pulled my dad from the plane. They are heroes. If you can, please make sure to give them gratitude for saving Mike's life.

Funeral services for Bill are Tuesday at 4pm to 8pm and Wednesday from 11am to noon. I unfortunately will be back in Orlando, but if you are able to attend and pay respects to the other hero and Mikes good friend please do. This man put a plane down in a very small space avoiding ground casualties. I walked the crash site and it is clear he was thinking of the people on the ground as he came down.

I will be going to Orlando tomorrow to take care of some things. I will be retuning this weekend. We have family coverage 24 hours a day here at the hospital. Kyle will begin staying here at night starting tomorrow. Alice and kyle will make sure he knows your thoughts and prayers are with him through the week.

[fantom]

Lots of excellent thought provoking statements and self examination here...a very worthwhile exercise. Mike is instructing us again, even from a hospital bed.

 

Flying, as I've said many times, is not an activity for the timid. As hard as we prepare, train, practice, study, add equipment, reduce risk.....it is still inherently dangerous. If we can't live with that, there's always tiddlywinks.

 

As was painfully proven once again, on Friday, and as Stephen Coonts has written, 'The hard, inescapable reality is that anyone who flies may die in an airplane.'

 

From Winston Churchill, In The Air:

 

The air is an extremely dangerous, jealous and exacting mistress. Once under the spell most lovers are faithful to the end, which is not always old age. Even those masters and princes of aerial fighting, the survivors of fifty mortal duels in the high air who have come scatheless through the War and all its perils, have returned again and again to their love and perished too often in some ordinary commonplace flight undertaken for pure amusement.

 

My head and heart dwell on recovery for Mike, and peace for Bill's loved ones. There but for the grace of God, go I.

[fantom]

Fantom - or anyone else - Jolie maybe?

 

I tried to have a stuffed animal sent to Mike - a copilot bear actually - but the company I ordered from just now phoned me and told me that the address that you cited Fantom does not exist.  Does anyone have the correct mailing address for this hospital please?

 

Erik

 

I apologize for contributing to the confusion.

 

It is indeed 1701 N, Senate Blvd.

 

 

The website says 1701 not 1710 like Alice told me.  So maybe that is the problem.

 

 

Correct....

[John Pleisse]

Just seeing this now. Best wishes for Mike and I will have a quiet thought for Bill today.

[aviatoreb]

 

I apologize for contributing to the confusion.

 

It is indeed 1701 N, Senate Blvd.

 

 

 

 

Correct....

 

 

No worry Fantom.  Yes 1701N Senate seems correct - and the package is on its way.  Shhh - no one tell - its a secret surprise but there is a copilot bear just like my own cockpit fuzzy friend on the way to Indy.

[M016576]

No worry Fantom. Yes 1701N Senate seems correct - and the package is on its way. Shhh - no one tell - its a secret surprise but there is a copilot bear just like my own cockpit fuzzy friend on the way to Indy.

Wish I had thought of that

[flyboy0681]

Shocker doesn't quite explain it. 

 

No doubt Mike will be filling us in on the details soon. I'm also confident that we will all be learning something from this disaster.

[mooneygirl]

From Nick, Mike's son

Mike Elliott had a big day today. He was very alert and was communicating through head nods and lipping words. I even understood him say one word. He also was asking for Alice Barbera this morning. They took him off an IV pain killer and put his respirator to vent mode. This means he is doing all the work breathing right now. They will put him on a duel mode for the night to give him a break if he wants on breathing but this is a giant milestone. He is doing great and we couldn't be happier with his progress.

[Hank]

Wonderful news! Thanks for the updates, Jolie.

[aviatoreb]

Good news. Keep pulling Mike!

[WardHolbrook]

It's tragic whenever anything like this happens, but it's especially tough when it happens to family members or friends. I'm praying for all involved. Hopefully, there will be some way to extract something good from all of this.

[kellym]

It's tragic whenever anything like this happens, but it's especially tough when it happens to family members or friends. I'm praying for all involved. Hopefully, there will be some way to extract something good from all of this.

Just re-read the account of the Ploesti bombing mission with 177 B-24s in August 1943.  53 were shot down with 600 airmen on board, a 30 percent loss rate. only 88 planes made it back, of which 55 had significant battle damage. 2/3ds of those shot down were killed, the other third became POWs. The worst air mission of the war, but many others over Germany also had horrific losses. Thankfully we don't expect anyone shooting at us when we fly these days.

If we stay with aviation long enough, a friend or a friend of a friend will be lost. I consider Mike a friend, while I did not know Bill. I pray for both of them.

In the early days of the original Mooney email list, there was a member, Alice Freeman, who chose to drive from I think Tennessee to Destin because the weather was too bad to fly. She died in a car accident on the way back. Life has its risks, we do our best to avoid them or at least be aware of them. Either a pilot goes flying knowing it will his last day of flying, or not knowing it might be his last.

[donkaye]

I flew up to Lincoln, California on Sunday to practice formation flying for the Mooney Caravan to Oshkosh.  Formation flying is intense.  It's said that every hour of such flying can be compared to 5 hours of normal flying.  I believe that is a true statement.  The intensity of that practice left no time to think about the horrible accident that we have been discussing and that I had read about before the flight.....thankfully.  I flew the flight back home with Phil Verghese as lead, in formation, and San Jose let us do a formation landing.  It came out perfectly and can be seen here:  http://youtu.be/n2AYIPSnuXw   The movie was taken by Phil's wife.  In spite of the accident several days earlier, the camaraderie and exhilaration of that flight reminded me how lucky we are to experience the joys of flying. I just can't imagine not owning an airplane.

 

We had talked at length about the accident on Saturday evening when I did the airwork with Phil for his Wings program. Phil is also a flight instructor.  Several years ago I had put together a preflight takeoff briefing for a single engine aircraft just like is done for a multiengine airplane.  I have gotten lax on verbalizing it of late.  Not anymore.  In this case it may not have helped, as it looks like fate just intervened with no realistic options available to Bill and Mike...list friends.

 

Sven could not have written a better Eulogy...

[mikesalman]

Great news!!! Thanks for keeping us updated, we will keep Mike and all those involved in our Prayers.

[fantom]

.......In this case it may not have helped, as it looks like fate just intervened with no realistic options available to Bill and Mike...list friends.

 

 

Quite correct.

"... it seemed that fate was the hunter. As it had been and would be"

— Ernest K. Gann

"

[mooneygirl]

This was on the news today.

 

http://wishtv.com/2014/07/14/pilots-wife-thanks-brave-men-for-trying-to-save-her-husband/

 

I have been in contact with one of the parties responsible for pulling Mike out.  God bless them for putting themselves in harms way to help Bill and Mike.

[KSMooniac]

Mike's son posted their pictures on facebook as well... thank God they were there and able to help so quickly.  

[mooneygirl]

Big update from hospital! I just heard Mike Elliott is completely off the ventilator. They have him out of bed and in a cardiac reclining chair. And the neck brace has come off! This is absolutely wonderful news. He may be out of ICU as soon as tomorrow

[flyboy0681]

Miracles do happen.

 

It's unfortunate that only Mike made it out. Having known two pilots that were killed in plane crashes, it takes such an unbelievable toll on the family that you have to actually see it to believe it. All I keep thinking about are the pilots two young ones. Thankfully there weren't up with him.

[carusoam]

Got to love the people that stop to help!

Even if they only just dial 911...

Good to see the positive progress, every day.

Best regards,

-a-

[mooneygirl]

Minor but important update: Mike Elliott has been outfitted with a device which allows him to speak with the tracheotomy tube in place. It wears him out to speak, but he is doing really good. We are going to try to limit the amount of talking he attempts.

The nurse asked if he knew Ken Elliott and he said yes. The nurse asked if he knew Carl and he said yes. Then when asked who they are, he responded "assholes." My dad has his sense of humor about him. He knows he was in a plane crash, but doesn't remember anything regarding the flight yet. Nurses say this is completely normal. He may never regain memory of the incident. We are thinking of all the healing he has to go physically and emotionally. He will need to lean on us all for support once we can let him have visitors. — with Mike Elliott.

[Danb]

Absolutely awesome! God bless them all, those who helped, those who are in charge at the hospital and most importantly their family...

[mooneygirl]

Mike Elliott is writing notes asking for things. Using full sentences with big words at times. He has asked about the DOW of all things, and he watches TV. With assistance, he was able to stand today. He has a long road before he will be back on his feet, but he makes good progress every day. He also has started reading some of his emails. He will eventually respond to emails.