by Ken Broadway

Created on: February 16, 2008

The Best In Us

It never fails to amaze me how we can be so selfish and mean to each other at times, yet, when the fit hits shan, people come together to save the life of someone they don't even know.

One summer we got the call to respond to a homebound jet that had just declared an in-flight emergency.

Tossing our gear in the truck we jumped in, racing towards the runway, straining to hear any details of the emergency over the radio. While responding to in-flights is part of our jobthis one was and always will be differentsticking in my mind as the one of the highest examples of people working together to achieve a common goal.

As the jet neared the airfield we heard something that stopped our hearts.

The pilot had somehow injured his neck and was unable to turn his head. Though he was able to fly the plane straight on and circle the airfield with painful effort, he was not certain whether he would be able to land safely.

In a short time, the packed airfield thrived with the scurrying vehicles of the different departmental expertsthe fire dept, pilots and medical rescue people, safety folks and othersas they all tried desperately to invent a plan to get the injured man down safely.

Meanwhile the jet was directed to stay aloft as it circled above our heads like a wounded eagle with no place to land.

Different ideas were hurriedly presented and rejected in the pro tempor command post on the ground as each expert's input was evaluated. At first it was thought that the pilot would land into the arresting barrier (the steel cable stretched across the runway like on aircraft carriers) but the medical experts rejected that idea because the extent of the pilot's injury was unknown and the force of it could be dangerous to him. Other ideas throw in and rejected, including the worse case scenario of an ejection.

As he stayed in the air over above heads, time ran shortthere was only so much fuel remaining.

Finally, as we waited and hoped, the most incredible plan that I'd ever heard was hatched.

It was determined with input from the injured pilot that he would come in, approaching the runway as slowly as possible while the emergency personnel and equipment staged at the ready to expedite to his aid.

Since the pilot was unable to turn his head, he would not be able to steer the powerful aircraft left or right or even see the field after a certain point. But another experienced pilot waiting just off of the edge of the runway in a car, would enter behind the jet at a safe distance

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