A Wing and a Prayer - It's a Miracle - 6033

[Music] and now from pax TV studio 611 your host Richard Thomas good evening and welcome to it's a miracle and another hour of inspirational true stories if we've learned anything around here it's that you can never predict when or where a miracle will happen and the family in our first story would agree they found theirs at 1,500 feet in the air on August 5th 2000 Henry and Becky Ann halt and their three sons boarded a small plane to return home from a church related trip to the Bahamas their pilot was Christopher Pierce who also owned the Piper Cherokee he was flying we met Christopher through our pastor and he agreed to take us basically with his own time and he didn't charge us anything except fuel cost take off under 2007 we had basically an uneventful nice and calm journey the skies are beautiful the Caribbean was beautiful the plane was heading north over the Florida coast when the pilot quietly slumped forward in his seat unconscious not knowing what else to do Henry grab the controls I saw that my husband had the yoke of the plane and I said why are you blind a plane plane and he looked at me very seriously and he told me Christopher's passed out find some smelling salts so I looked everywhere I looked for first-aid kits all over the place I can't find anything anymore what's going through my mind is you've got to be kidding this doesn't really happen this isn't real unfortunately it was all too real and unless the pilot regained consciousness the reality of the situation would soon become deadly I was holding him up because he was actually slumping over on Henry and I began diving his face with water and calling out his name wake up I kept saying what do we do I don't know what to do and I finally told Henry I said you really need to call out on a mayday we called out for about 10 or 15 minutes just Mayday Mayday Mayday but the air controllers at Tampa International Airport weren't convinced of what they heard did you copy a baby no I sure didn't they they they again by now the plane was flying too low to establish radio contact that's the default one with no response the tension inside the plane mountain it was a really scary feeling because you feel so alone and you're wondering you know what am I going to do if somebody's life that's in your hands and also at the same time I was concerned if my husband would know what to do to fly the plane and particularly land the plane we're totally untrained to you know what are you doing an airplane and I just prayed at that time lord please let someone hear us lady I'm a Dave on the 101 965 business Hawker and I'm a my echo her prayers were answered when another plane picked up the SOS and related to ground control supportive camper there's a single-engine aircraft the passengers talk and the pilot is passed out okay get a position fellas he can play the past is familiar with transponder havend Island zero one five one okay on the single-engine aircraft there's a on your radio stack they'll be an instrument such as a radio with about four digits on it that's the one [Music] he is not able to change the transponder Diamond tobacco as Henry tried to adjust the radio he suddenly noticed that the planes number one fuel tank was nearly empty and he had no idea how to switch to the reserve is getting go on the inductive gun James II thing okay what type of airplane at the end better than a piper through the other pilot Tampa began feeding Henry instructions on how to change fuel tanks nine-nine x-rays look for a there's a twitch on the panel that says fuel pump go ahead and turn that on then you'll find a selector level it'll say left right or both turn the pump on and then same thing but Henry switched the lever the engine stalled go back to where it was [Music] okay good keep it there we were really getting very panicky because there really wasn't that much fuel reserve laughs thoughts go through your mind about you don't want to go down the middle of a highway where there's a lot of pedestrians or a lot of people you know driving up and down in their cars because if you run out of gas you're basically going down regardless if you're trying to hold it up or not [Music] coming up Henry and hauled attempts an emergency landing when I looked over at my son Jeremiah and Jacob they were looking at me wide-eyed and I saw a tear running down my oldest son Jeremiah face the dramatic conclusion when it's a miracle returns [Music] when the pilot of a small Piper Cherokee passed out at the wheel a passenger was forced to take over the controls but Henry Anhalt had no experience flying or landing a plane and with the number one fuel tank nearly empty it was only a matter of minutes before the plane would go down meanwhile ground control was desperately trying to maintain contact with the aircraft you know how to change the frequency they want you to change through one of the one nine point nine zero and then they quickly change their mind yeah off on that for just a minute 10 9 9 X ray hold up a frequency a vampire but it was too late Henry had already switched to another frequency and was now lost to both Tampa and the other pilot 9 X ray this define me by echo nine x-ray this is finally my echo if it's a string Tampa sign they back off it was a terrifying situation the adults were once again on their own and at a total loss of what to do without radio contact and with their fuel gauge hitting empty only an experienced pilot would be able to save their lives but what the adults didn't know was that their pilot was dead evam a day a day we're circling over a lake by Gilbert Field at 2,000 and then just when all seemed lost another transmission came over the radio flight instructor Dan McCullough had overheard the emergency radio exchanges concerning the piper we immediately called Tampa and offered our assistance at that point Tampa wasn't turning down anybody that was offering to help nine Romeo tango if you'd like to head towards Winter Haven apparently the pilots that he's near Winter Haven he's at 755 on the bank Oh Dan quickly changed course and made the short hop to Winter Haven it wasn't a moment too soon the piper was virtually running on fumes he couldn't see the plane but he dialed in to their frequency and began preparing Henry to change I was a little nervous while he was trying to make the switch if you inadvertently turned the fuel selector to the off position the engine would stop running by this time Henry managed to switch the tank successfully moments later dan McCullough had them in his sight that was probably about a thousand feet higher than they were and saw them underneath [Music] it was just an awesome sight to see that plane they were very relieved to have someone there with us but their relief was followed by the realization that they still had to land the aircraft [Music] I was extremely concerned because it's a difficult situation to be in never having flown before I actually have to land the airplane I indicated to him that what we were going to do was spend a little bit of time flying and I was going to give him some instruction over the radio so that he could become familiar with how the controls operated in that aircraft now what I wanted to do was basically like in kindergarten play and follow the leader have him follow me around it's a lot easier to see something else doing it and follow it than to try to do it on your own he was doing an excellent job of maintaining control of the aircraft listening to the instructions I was giving him but Dan knew that the greatest danger still lay ahead [Music] all too soon the moment of truth had arrived it was time for Henry to put the piper down on the ground without a doubt the most challenging part of any flight is landing an aircraft the one thing you can never be sure about with somebody that hasn't flown before is how they're going to react when they have to land the sign of the ground rushing up to you is scary I mean there's no other way to describe it at the last minute Henri's fear got the best of them and he aborted the landing but Dan calmly let him around for another try [Music] [Music] as Dan chatted casually he carefully maneuvered his plane behind the pipe I'm gonna come up a little bit behind you so I can watch on the play down in that way I could tell you to pick the nose up or down on the layout heard that sound like a plan you can make a left turn make a left turn over to the airport [Music] inside the piper the family braced themselves for the dangerous descent when I looked over at my son Jeremiah and Jacob they were looking at me wide I saw a tear running down my oldest son Jeremiah's face you could tell that he was really scared I prayed that um a pilot would wake back up and he could land but then it was too late my dad had a land and the pilot said to your ID the land and he said to you do I have a choice an approach to landing down to five feet is something you can talk anybody through at the point he got five feet off the ground it was kind of time for faith to take over [Music] it was a very scary feeling to feel the dibbs I was so nervous I felt like I was gonna pass out the aircraft bounced when it hit the ground my heart skipped to be a little bit flat set back down the second time I knew he had it made miraculously Henry Anhalt had landed the piper without the slightest damage to its passengers or the plane any landing you can walk away from is a good landing in any landing you can go back to and fly the airplane is a great landing emergency ground personnel moved in to remove the pilot from the plane only to discover the terrible tragedy that had occurred in the skies moments later the adults dazed and shaken slowly emerged from the aircraft onto solid ground as I got out of the plane the realization of what had happened really hit me and I just began to shake uncontrollably and I I pretty well lost the strength of my legs and kind of fell to the ground I went around to the other side of the plane with my wife and kids and we sat in the grass there for a few minutes and said a prayer thanking God that he got us on the ground but their joy was tempered by the fact that Christopher Pierce had died of a massive heart attack the whole experience is really a double-edged sword because on the one hand we're so grateful that were alive and that that God had spared our lives and on the other hand we're very deeply saddened at the loss of Christopher Pearce because he was a really great man after Dan McCullough had landed his plane he joined the adults to congratulate Henry [Music] I can't say enough positive things about the job Henry did and landing that aircraft it's just unbelievable to meet the amount of poise and confidence that he showed and working with me to successfully land that airplane in the end there's no doubt in anyone's mind that what happened that day was miraculous we prayed for wisdom and God sent us a flight instructor Dan McCullough being there when we needed him exactly who we needed at the time that we needed him I just think it's miracle after miracle the old timers that at the airport said there's no way I could have landed that plane without divine intervention and I just give God the glory that he got us on the ground safely [Music] we wanted to take a moment to remember the man who lost his life in this story pilot Christopher Warren Pearce Chris was married the father of three children and a valued member of his community he gave generously of his time and resources regularly flying relief supplies and medical assistance to people in need he will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him [Music]

Channel: Questar Entertainment

Views: 170,689

Rating: 4.8488626 out of 5

Keywords: Questar, it's a miracle, miracles, inspirational, richard thomas, flying, piper plane, lands plane without flying experience, no flying experience, aviation, air traffic controller, air traffic control, flight, aviators, pilot dies, pilot dies while flying, man flies plane without flying experience, first-time pilot

Id: fvaoGQKJ8jc

Length: 18min 0sec (1080 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 25 2019