Man hit by airplane while running

**perry** · 03-16-2010, 06:00 PM

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35885646/ns/us_news/

Originally Posted by article

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. - Robert Gary Jones was a pharmaceutical salesman on a business trip, looking forward to getting home to celebrate his daughter's third birthday. He was enjoying a moment to himself on this resort island, jogging on the beach and listening to his iPod.

Officials say the Woodstock, Ga., man neither saw nor heard what struck him from behind Monday evening: A single-engine plane making an emergency landing.

This is just too bizarre for words. When your time is up, your time is up, I guess.

**voerman** · 03-16-2010, 06:27 PM

I never run with earphones. Maybe he would not have heard the airplane anyway, but having both the senses of hearing and sight available can only help.

Lou

**blackfoot** · 03-16-2010, 06:33 PM

Holy crap, that is very sad.

**perry** · 03-16-2010, 06:35 PM

That's what folks on the running boards say... And I don't run w/ headphones either. But.. little wind on the beach, crashing waves, small gliding airplane.. iPod or not, that guy wouldn't have heard the plane. And who would think to look back and up when they hear a "wishhhh" from behind while on the beach?

It's just very, very, very weird. And to make it weirder, the pilot and passenger survived.

**njpaddy** · 03-16-2010, 06:50 PM

I love the quote by the pilot:
"I've got a lot of issues going on right now," Smith said. "I've got a plane that's all torn up. And I've got a young man that I killed."

Nice that his plane came first in his list of issues.

**gollum83** · 03-16-2010, 06:52 PM

Sounds like he wouldn't have heard it coming regardless. The thing that gets me though is that the pilot could safely land on the beach just fine, but claims they couldn't see out the window because there was oil smeared on it?

Anyway, this is very sad. And to make matters worse it sounded like the guy has a three-year-old with a birthday coming up. Poor kid.

**blackfoot** · 03-16-2010, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by gollum83

Sounds like he wouldn't have heard it coming regardless. The thing that gets me though is that the pilot could safely land on the beach just fine, but claims they couldn't see out the window because there was oil smeared on it?

Anyway, this is very sad. And to make matters worse it sounded like the guy has a three-year-old with a birthday coming up. Poor kid.

If you ever try to drive with your window frosted up, you know you can see well enough to go but not well enough to be safe.

**gollum83** · 03-16-2010, 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by blackfoot

If you ever try to drive with your window frosted up, you know you can see well enough to go but not well enough to be safe.

Yeah, tell that to the guy's widow and kids.

**blackfoot** · 03-16-2010, 06:57 PM

Originally Posted by gollum83

Yeah, tell that to the guy's widow and kids.

What I was saying is, it could have been a tree in the way and he would have hit it. Getting down is the easy part.

**mmack66** · 03-16-2010, 07:02 PM

Beaches are usually full of people. He should have ditched it in the ocean and taken his chances.

**KarthVader** · 03-16-2010, 08:28 PM

Man, that just sucks. What a way to go.

**blackfoot** · 03-17-2010, 06:45 AM

I am sorry, but this is a pet peeve of mine. My father was a police officer. I am a security officer, served as a volunteer firefighter and as a search and rescue diver. Every time one of our brothers makes a decision, he has to go through this kind of scrutiny for months on a decision he had fractions of as second to make.

It is easy to say what he should and shouldn't have done. First, most of us are not pilots and do not know the first thing about this. Second, He had seconds to make decisions that we have all the time in the world to consider, without the pressure of trying to not get dead!

We are not making these decisions in an attempt to save our life. Most of us are not experienced in this area. We do not know circumstances such as what was and wasn't still working on the aircraft. We do not know the pilot's experience and skill level. There are too many variables that we do not know or understand.

Just as an example, that passenger could have been freaking out. In rescue diving, they taught us how to...regain control of a victim because their freaking out can take you down. I personally know someone who nearly killed a very strong swimmer when their canoe sunk. The man was flown from the scene to a hospital and almost didn't make it. Now imagine that person sitting in the seat next to you. That changes the situation drastically.

I am sure that pilot will spend years saying the same "I should have" statements.

**valmara1971** · 03-17-2010, 06:56 AM

Originally Posted by voerman

I never run with earphones. Maybe he would not have heard the airplane anyway, but having both the senses of hearing and sight available can only help.

Lou

I never run.

**blackfoot** · 03-17-2010, 07:01 AM

Originally Posted by valmara1971

I never run.

Why did I not think of this?

**tg16** · 03-17-2010, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by gollum83

Sounds like he wouldn't have heard it coming regardless. The thing that gets me though is that the pilot could safely land on the beach just fine, but claims they couldn't see out the window because there was oil smeared on it?

Anyway, this is very sad. And to make matters worse it sounded like the guy has a three-year-old with a birthday coming up. Poor kid.

Most likely his nose was up somewhat or he was flaring. At that point, he would have been looking to the side to judge the rate of descent and his relationship to the ground.

When I was in flight school and we covered emergency landings at night, I was told to turn the landing light on and if I didn't like what I saw, turn it off. Although this was in the daytime, the point is you reach a point of no return and are helpless to manuver. He was probably close to his stalling speed and the ground was coming up. Although landings look slow from the perspective of someone watching, they're actually pretty fast. The single engine I flew came in and touched down at around 60 mph. At the final flare, the nose was far up enough that to look out the windshield only resulted in seeing sky and the runway far ahead of me. I had to look out the side to get perspective.

It was a sad situation for all. Especially the man's family.

**xriley** · 03-17-2010, 07:25 AM

I think this should just be filed under tragic accident. Chances that this pilot will ever repeat or even be in the position to repeat are practically non-existent.

**kwk285** · 03-17-2010, 07:48 AM

I am currently training for my second marathon. I am always nervous that cars will see me. Now I have to worry about planes.

**dpmtherrien** · 03-17-2010, 07:58 AM

I saw this today, man it just goes to show you, you never know.

**gollum83** · 03-17-2010, 09:51 AM

Originally Posted by tg16

Most likely his nose was up somewhat or he was flaring. At that point, he would have been looking to the side to judge the rate of descent and his relationship to the ground.

When I was in flight school and we covered emergency landings at night, I was told to turn the landing light on and if I didn't like what I saw, turn it off. Although this was in the daytime, the point is you reach a point of no return and are helpless to manuver. He was probably close to his stalling speed and the ground was coming up. Although landings look slow from the perspective of someone watching, they're actually pretty fast. The single engine I flew came in and touched down at around 60 mph. At the final flare, the nose was far up enough that to look out the windshield only resulted in seeing sky and the runway far ahead of me. I had to look out the side to get perspective.

It was a sad situation for all. Especially the man's family.

Good point, and you're probably right. I guess when you get right down to it, it was a horrible freak accident and there's no point in trying to search for an explanation because you'll never find a satisfactory answer.

**infotech** · 03-17-2010, 10:03 AM

You want to see a stupid pilot? This happened over the past weekend at one of the most popular beaches in the area - http://www.khou.com/news/local/Plane...-87990377.html