Praise God — only a few scrapes and stiff muscles!!!
I never lost consciousness during the crash and violent tumbling but I was surprised how quickly it all ended (75 mph to zero in less than 2 seconds, estimated), and there I was sitting amidst the wreckage completely OK, except for the shock of it all. The final outcome was in the hands of God and I’m thankful for His mercy.
And Joel is also an experienced, former U.S. fighter-jet pilot, whose analytical, careful, emotions-in-control response not only helps in critiquing current events….
Joel describes the event, below.
jeff : )
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World Affairs Brief, March 15, 2013 Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World. Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief (http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com
THIS WEEK’S ANALYSIS:
Eastern Europe—Closet Communists or NATO Puppets?
Evading the Truth on Domestic Surveillance
First Jesuit Pope
BLM Settles with Environmentalists—Tying up Energy Again
Impugning the Right Wing and all Survivalists
Beware of Survival Communities
Tucson Gives Air Force Carte Blanche Powers
Job Numbers Aren’t Real
My Scrape with Death this Week
[…]
MY SCRAPE WITH DEATH THIS WEEK
On a personal note, the private plane I pilot regularly for travel lost power from a fuel blockage and I had to ditch it into a recently plowed cornfield this week. I was only 1/4 mile short of the runway but I chose to turn at the last minute toward the farmland to avoid people and property between me and the airfield, even knowing it wasn’t going to turn out good for the airplane. I’m glad I had that choice.
The field was too soft to support a landing so the landing gear dug in and the plane tumbled and broke apart. The composite fuselage broke in half right where I was sitting and separated from the lower wing. The tumbling was violent enough to actually tear my seat belt apart so all I had to do when it came to a stop is step out onto the ground through the broken fuselage.
Miraculously, I was completely unhurt except for a few minor cuts and bruises (which showed up a day later–along with every muscle being stiff). Many of my friends who came over from the airport shook their heads in amazement after looking at the airplane and remarked how lucky I was.
Well, it wasn’t luck or skill other than having the presence of mind to bring a powerless plane in for a landing without stalling—which is always fatal. Gliding in, the tendency is to stretch the glide to avoid a fence or pick a better spot to land and the pilot who does that usually stalls and spirals in vertically, which you can’t survive. In fact, recently, I had just read a story in Flying magazine about an experienced military pilot like myself who did just that, and I remembered all the way down, “don’t get slow.”
I never lost consciousness during the crash and violent tumbling but I was surprised how quickly it all ended (75 mph to zero in less than 2 seconds, estimated), and there I was sitting amidst the wreckage completely OK, except for the shock of it all. The final outcome was in the hands of God and I’m thankful for His mercy. And, thanks to all those who expressed concern for my welfare in emails. News videos and pictures were online, so news spread pretty rapidly. I guess you never know quite how you are appreciated until you come close to death.
Related:
Joel Skousen: MIRACULOUS Plane Crash Survival! | “Rothschilds are the biggest financial base of the New World Order”
Pilot Joel Skousen feels ‘blessed’ after surviving plane crash: “I’m very blessed — no other way to describe coming out of that airplane without anything but a couple of scratches”
