Pilot Lands Plane Before Dying
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
LOS ANGELES – A pilot who suffered a heart attack managed to make a perfect emergency landing on a highway in Utah and save the lives of his three passengers before he died.
Jack Francis, 61, was flying a single-engine Cessna 185 carrying his wife and another couple from Jackpot, Nevada, to Utah on Sunday morning.
Despite suffering the attack, he brought the aircraft down on a remote stretch of highway near Park Valley, Utah. It slid off the road and hit a fence before coming to a halt.
Mr. Francis was taken to hospital in nearby Tremonton, where he died. His passengers were able to walk away from the plane.
Derek Jensen, a spokesman for the Utah Highway Patrol, said: “The outcome could have been a lot worse if he hadn’t landed in time and had more problems while he was still in the air.”
Patrolman Lee Perry, who was first at the scene, said: “It was a perfect, smooth landing. There were no skid or bump marks on the road.”
Mr. Francis ran a transport company in Brigham City, 60 miles north of Salt Lake City.
