Lancair IV-P lost near Lansing MI

On Thu, 03 Jun 2004 11:03:11 GMT, "Joe Johnson"
wrote:

A neurosurgeon saved himself and 3 skiing buddies by putting his V35 down on
route 7 near Rutland, VT. The Bo's engine quit a week after an annual. He
flew it beneath an overpass and only slightly damaged one wing. All aboard
walked away unhurt. I don't have the link, but if you google some of the
terms above, you can find Newsday's account. The article didn't say how may
hours he had, but this doctor obviously knew what he was doing.

I looked for the incident in Google. Turned up an article written in
Anchorage Alaska, but nothing from any papers written here in New
England. Could be the way I arranged the wording of the search.

I remember the incident, but did not recall the details well.

The pilot was lucky, and unlucky at the same time. He was lucky to be
over a nice smooth interstate highway, but unlucky in that he lost
altitude such that he could not clear the one and only overpass on the
highway.

He also blew out both main tires during the landing, must have hit a
bit hard.

Corky Scott

OK, I found it in my email archives:
============ =========== ==========
DIX HILLS
Safe landing after scare


BY COLLIN NASH
STAFF WRITER


March 2, 2004


Just minutes away from touching down at Rutland airport in Vermont on
Sunday, the four Long Island men aboard the single-engine aircraft
talked
excitedly about skiingdown the sun-bathed slopes of Okemo or Killington.


Suddenly an eerie quiet took the place of the drone from the
six-passenger
Beechcraft Bonanza. The engine was dead.


Gliding more than 7,500 feet above the valleys and foothills of the
Green
Mountains and losing altitude at about 700 feet a minute, the pilot, Dr.


Jeffrey Epstein, a neurosurgeon, drew on training from his high-pressure


profession. "I wasn't panicked," he said yesterday, recalling how he
calmly
radioed Albany airport for the nearest site to land the plane. "I was
more
concerned about making it over the mountains and finding a flat place to
land."


Epstein, of Dix Hills, and his three passengers, Dr. Brad Litwak, an
anesthesiologist also of Dix Hills; Ed Garger, an insurance manager from


Glen Cove, and Bob McBride of Northport, made it safely over the
mountains.
And Epstein, skirting under overhead electrical wires and a 16-foot
overpass, found his flat surface to put the plane down - the northbound
lane of U.S. Route 7 in Sunderland.


The plane, which Epstein said underwent its annual maintenance check
just
more than a week ago, blew out its tires and sustained wing damage. No
one,
including Epstein, 52, a father of three, and his passengers, was
injured,
authorities said.


Garger, 52, had agreed on the spur of the moment to join the three
others
on the ski trip when his friend McBride invited him during dinner
Saturday.
It was his maiden voyage in a single-engine aircraft, Garger said.


The takeoff about 8:15 from Farmingdale "was perfect," he said. Epstein
was
very thorough about staying in radio contact with air traffic
controllers
throughout the flight, he said. "We were all calm" when the engine died,
he
said. "I said to myself, 'This is not the day I'm gonna die.'"


His fate didn't cross his mind, Epstein said.


Vermont State Police said the Federal Aviation Administration is
investigating the incident.


Copyright C 2004, Newsday, Inc.