78-Year Old Pilot Survives With Minor Injuries
One television station calls it a miracle, what Bill Cody did
with his Lancair 360 yesterday. The 78-year old pilot had just
taken off from Pearson's Field in Vancouver (WA) when smoke began
to fill the cockpit. Cody hauled the stick around, pointed his
aircraft at the airport and got on the radio.
Kristina Galipp was all ears. "All I heard was 'Mayday! Mayday!'
and then everybody else started gathering around going 'what? what?
what?,'" said Galipp. "And the rest of it was drowned out, so
that's all I heard. But it sounded panicked and the guy knew he was
going down."
Indeed, Cody was going
down, but he wasn't going to make the airport. So, with the skill
of a New York City commuter, Cody put the plane down on the side of
Washington State Road 14 near the field. John Damiani, a trash
hauler on the road at the time, happened to look up at his mirror
as Cody approached his garbage truck. "I looked in the mirror and I
thought it was a light pole, 'cause all I could see was the wing,"
said Damiani. "The color of the plane looks like one of those light
poles and I'm going, 'how the heck did that get here?' and then he
came out around me and I'm going, that's nice, an airplane."
The 78-year old Ridgefield (WA) pilot was able to hop out of the
wreckage before the aircraft was engulfed in flames. Cody, a World
War II veteran who's been flying since 1942, according to police,
was taken to a local hospital. Witnesses at the scene, however,
said he escaped the Lancair without a scratch. Unfortunately, his
aircraft fared much worse. The 360, valued at $75,000, was listed
as a total loss. It was returned to nearby Pearson's Field after
firefighters doused the flames using suppressant foam. How did Cody
get through the crisis? "You don't have time to be scared when you
have an emergency," he said.
FAA Preliminary Accident Report
IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 360W
Make/Model: EXP Description: LANCAIR
360
Date: 08/07/2003 Time: 2140
Event Type: Accident Highest Injury:
None Mid Air: N Missing:
N
Damage: Destroyed
LOCATION
City: VANCOUVER State: WA Country:
US
DESCRIPTION
ACFT APPROX 8 MINUTES AFTER DEPARTURE, ENGINE SHUT DOWN AND
ATTEMPTED TO
LAND ON HIGHWAY 14 AND HIT A TRUCK, VANCOUVER, WA
INJURY DATA Total
Fatal: 0
# Crew: 1 Fat:
0 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
# Pass: 0
Fat: 0 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
# Grnd:
Fat: 0 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
WEATHER: KVUO METAR 072153Z AUTO 26006KT 10SM CLR 26/10
A2998
OTHER DATA
Activity: Pleasure Phase:
Climb Operation: General Aviation
Departed: VANCOUVER,
WA
Dep Date: 08/07/2003 Dep. Time: 2130
Destination: SCAPPOSE,
OR
Flt Plan: UNK
Wx Briefing: U
Last Radio Cont: UNK
Last Clearance: UNK
FAA FSDO: PORTLAND, OR
(NM09)
Entry date: 08/08/2003