Pilot Dan Bass Unconscious As Mooney Crashes CO Poisoning - InTheHangar Ep 77

as pilots some of us have heard the apocryphal story of a pilot flying falling asleep in his plane and waking up in a field well is it myth we're gonna find out in the hangar [Music] hello I'm Dan Milliken and I'm Christy Wong welcome to in the hangar this episode is brought to you by Wingfield aviation service and transparency that you can trust it's centrally located in North Texas come from either side of the coast for your aircraft maintenance Dan bass thank you for coming on onto the show to talk to us Dan okay I've been joking about falling asleep but it's actually not a joke I mean it's a very serious thing but tell us a little bit about your background then we'll go into your story okay well ma see if I I started flying well before my dad had airplanes and I started flying of two months old got my private on my 16th or got sold 16th birthday got the private on the 17th birthday and then I was gonna go their line route and was a typical you know high school screw off kind of kid and I ended up taking over my dad's business and so I've been it's a custom manufacturing business okay so not aviation not aviation okay I've owned a couple airplanes currently have two airplanes and would use my airplane for business sometimes yeah that's all right now I let off the show with the apocryphal story the myth of the guy falling asleep I've heard the story and I was the guy doing it no way and when Brian Turner reached out to us and had told us like I really thought it was a legend I thought it was a myth I thought he was a prank on us yeah well that's Brian but yeah what is the your you are alleged yeah okay so it is not that you fell asleep take us to your emergency story okay well unfortunately yeah it it wasn't I wasn't asleep I was unconscious I'm due to carbon monoxide poisoning to get to that point was was kind of an interesting story a lot of learning points along the way it started it was in Minnesota early February and very cold and so I had to make a trip for business up to Thunder Bay Canada I took off early in the morning and during climb out I had something get in my eye and I felt like you know like a piece of dust or something then while I was trying to get it out I was thinking oh I wonder if that's covering monoxide poisoning and so well that's why it occurred that I never had either but that's what I thought oh I thought about and so I turned the the vent on turn my heat off and got cold really quick it was about -10 Fahrenheit that also do that that's what kind of airplane were you in that was a moonie okay and I was on an IFR flight plan was a beautiful day high pressure system but I went IFR because I figured flying out of the country would just be a lot easier handling the APUs and customs and if I was on to Canada yep this is my first time going to Canada so I kind of prepped the week before making all the plans and making sure customs was notified and I got my APUs the night before and and was pretty confident it was gonna work out the way I expected so in the climb I realized that that my I wasn't a problem part of carbon dioxide poisoning so I turned the heat back on and my I felt better anyway because I rubbed whatever it was out and that was the last time I thought about carbon dioxide up at altitude I was at ten or eleven thousand feet depending on the leg I checked my pulse ox with my pulse oximeter and I noticed I all I remember was that it was a little bit higher than normally is it that altitude and I thought to myself well that's a good sign I'm doing good today and it wasn't on oxygen I was just up you know breathing normally so I thought everything was going great about ten minutes out of Thunder Bay so I was about two hours and see two hours and fifteen minutes into the flight I started to get a real slight headache I didn't think anything of it because I'm a big coffee drinker and that morning to make sure I leave on time you skip I skipped it yeah and so I assumed those giving caffeine headache and it was really common it was real light it wasn't a big deal I landed in Thunder Bay and the instructions I got from customs the day before was to before I exit the airplane to call him on my phone and they will either say they're gonna come meet me or they were gonna give me a number of clearance number of some sort and so I called them and told them I landed at Thunder Bay they're just just right now and they they sound a little bit confused and said we meet you just now and I said yeah just just right now at 9:00 and I'm remember if time was 9:15 in the morning and he was sort of confused and then he said he gave me a number to write down and I assumed everything was fine so I secured the airplane and I sprinted into the FBI building because it was so barely cold up and I got into the FBI building and the I noticed and the line guy informed me of what time it was and it was really 10:15 because I didn't realize Thunder Bay was on eastern time I mean even though it was west of my position right departed it was an Eastern time zone and so at this time the headache is still there and I had this feeling of anxiety and or it felt I know it felt like a butterfly feeling and I attributed it to anxiety over the customs debacle and I literally at the time thought maybe they were gonna come running in with lights going and I was gonna be in trouble but here was two symptoms that I was able to explain away so one based on anxiety one based on lack of caffeine and then during my day at Thunder Bay I made sure to eat caffeine at lunch at a couple cups of coffee and my headache was gone and I felt felt good then in the return flight I had to fly to Luther Minnesota to clear customs back in and that flight I felt great it was a beautiful flight the Sun was going down I was later than I hoped I was hoping to be back home before dark but because I was an hour late and my meetings kind of were messed up too so I was a little bit later ever start to head back but the Sun was going down it was just gorgeous and I landed in Duluth and taxied up to the ramp and the customs agent was walking up to meet me and when I opened the door and stood up on the wing I got a splitting headache it just just thought an instant and I had had was a real headache real strong and this one I couldn't explain and I didn't associate it with the airplane so much because I felt great on the flight and now I'm out in the fresh air and I have this headache but my oldest daughter was four at the time and the preceding week she had been sick but we didn't so the four year olds can't explain why they're sick and so I just assumed I'm better than what she has yeah and then the headache was pretty strong and we we did the customs paperwork we ran inside and finish that up I used the restroom and I called my wife so I'm gonna be home in just over an hour and she asked if she wanted me to save dinner and I said no don't worry about it I'll be fine and ran back to the plane and meanwhile my headache is pretty strong and I was thinking to myself I just want to get home and be sick there right and it was bitter itis and everything kind of stacked up the FBO was the line crew is gone so if I did stay my airplane would be outside in the cold I'd have to go get a hotel you know all that stuff crossed my mind what a hassle to be but I didn't didn't realize that my symptoms were gonna get worse or anything was gonna change so I ran back into the plane and I got it started I didn't wanted to get cold soaked so I couldn't start it so I didn't let sit for long and at this point I hadn't filed a flight plan or anything so I just started the engine made sure I was running got the heat on and then as it was idling I tidied up the cockpit well first I filed my flight plan with my iPad and you know I was waiting for that email notice that said it was in accept in the system before I'd call to get my clearance so as I was waiting for that I tidied up the that I thought I was really prepared I had a flashlight on the seat next to me I had my hat and gloves on the seat next to me my big winter coat I took off put in the back seat I had my sweatshirt on I wear a headlamp when I fly tonight I had an electrical failure once in the past at night and that taught me that how the importance of that beside a headlamp on and I had everything kind of squared away and I was ready and once I saw it was in the system I called my clearance and then I got my taxi clearance to taxi out 44 night Victor eggs adult the Monaco ramp I the East End taxi to 70 elfelfa cross only 3 I will like the ramp I'm a Heath Dennis Alpha and cross runway 3 before 9 picture paradise hero exactly we have to go and on the taxi out so I had this headache and then I got a period of this butterfly feeling again and it was really short and brief it didn't really last like 10 seconds and it went away and I was thinking myself what was that I couldn't figure it out like what was going on and I got to the run-up area and my headache and whatever like feeling were gone I thought I felt normal so I started my run up and I do I usually do a flow and then I check it with a checklist and I did my flow and I got the checklist and I went through it and then I went through it again and I went through it again and I was sort of locked in this loop where I was I just was unsure to make a decision and to move on and I was in the roundup area long enough that the tower had actually called me and said are you ready to take off yeah yeah we're just about ready and I sort of responded with a yeah I guess I will be in a minute Wow and then I didn't respond if I was still doing a checklist and the tower about me I mean it later just cleared me for takeoff horribly I left and when I listened to those I can tell from me getting my clearance that I was impaired but in the moment I had no no idea so I and I was at that moment at the run apparently goes really suggestible if the tower controller said hey why don't you turn the engine off and walk back to the FBO I would probably been like oh okay but I he was cleared for takeoff and I just thought okay okay here we go and and I was feeling well at the time but obviously cognitively I wasn't well so I went to take off and I remember climbing out and I was 100 to 200 feet and put the gear up and it's electric here in this particular one and as I was putting the gear handle up I had that feeling of butterflies again it it hit pretty hard and we just say butterflies are you talking inside II like butterfly I've never experienced it before and I've never I usually don't have any anxiety unless I'm speaking publicly so is it very similar to how you feel yes right now right now if you're wondering come on in the hangar turn the lights on it's the same thing as carbon monoxide well that'll be a good pitch getting guests in the future yeah yeah it's it's good it's like hypoxia training right you come here no it feels like so but I had this it was real briefest feeling and the only way I can explain is like a butterfly feeling in my chest and it's similar to an anxiety feeling I guess I mean that's how I described it or justified it earlier in the day but it only lasted about 15 seconds and it was done and I've seen fine and I remember they cleared me to a left turn you know they gave me heading a two four zero and I remember in the turn I turned my heading bug to it and hit heading hold on the autopilot and then that particular autopilot only had altitude hold and then I could heading here now for GPS steer so I had it trimmed for climb of about a hundred five knots in that airplane so I 105 knots full rich rich mixture full power gears up and trim for climb and I remember now the next few minutes my memory got a little fuzzy and after I listened to the live APC some of it came back and I had a traffic call out and I remember calling out for that night picture calf deer right no miles a helicopter eventually turned itself westbound and I kind of remember like almost a tunnel vision feeling I remember thinking something wasn't right and I had to go back and and and but I continued on because I couldn't I didn't want to change anything because everything was kind of going I was trying to figure out what the problem was I got handed off to departure and I missed the handoff I called tower again and we've done that a time or two you know where you don't hit flip flop departure money now I was born under Victor on June 4th have woody for I think you're still at our departures one to five point four five and then I talked to departure in the departure I did slur my respond my response tone good Iran departure 29 I want went on a reserve climbing through 4301 everything horn I know Victor departure radar contact turn the left direct Winona maintain Niner thousand correct come on up and under for my verses and I at that point I thought I have to have to tell them I have to go back and land I remember having my thumb above the autopilot disconnect switch but I still heat cleared me direct to my destination and up to 9,000 feet and I remember in the 5:30 going direct ona enter enter and when I get direct to clearances and that airplane like muscle memory I'd hit the GPS steer button so I do that and then hit GPS tear and in this particular case I remember doing that but I didn't hit the GPS dear button so stayed on heading let's say done heading yeah Maureen I don't want four Niner Victor de lucid here the loop I'd enteric knowledge please I don't actually use ok lots clear on both fans it is I got this one anyone want to say the Ripper Niner one four nine Victor here to lose power or the roach tissue ident moody Niner one four Niner Victor if you hear Duluth contact Minneapolis enter one two to one point two zero five and let them know what altitude you climbing to let me better what for night or Victor Toulouse howdy here and the very next thing I remember is waking up and I thought I was flying I started King Mark Mike to tell ATC I dozed off I don't know where I am but I'm okay and I need to come in land and as I'm doing this I'm just kind of staring straight ahead and I remember thinking man my window looks really really clear this is amazing it's just beautiful and I've tried you know I live in the Mississippi River Valley and the bugs are unbelievable there I mean in the early evening you come in it looks like you're descending in a fog and it's bugs and so I I would polish my window all the time try to get it as nice as I could and yeah I was proud of myself because all good it locked us this is incredible and as I'm sonic keen to Mike and I'm looking out the beautiful window I sort of reached forward to just feel the window and then I realized it wasn't there and at that point I started looking around and there's trees off to my left and I realized I was actually on the ground Wow Wow and yeah they're looking at pictures of it amazing so okay so you look around and but it was at night right yeah yep so I couldn't you could see the trees or yeah I could see a tree stood a little bit for the night there there was no moon this night but there was no clouds it was a nice day to fly that being really cold and so the stars are really brilliant I'm out in the field in the middle of nowhere and when I first realized those on the ground and that started to sink in I looked off to my right and about a mile away I could see a searchlight and field Wow and I knew right away that that was someone looking for me I just assumed I was on IFR flight plan and I was talking to ATC they would be looking for me so my next order of business was to try to get out of the airplane and to where I saw that light and I was just sitting there I couldn't move my legs at all I remember trying to first I was trying to get out of the plane I couldn't and I tried to just wiggle my legs back and forth and I wasn't able to and I assumed I was paralyzed and I didn't particularly bothered me at the time okay I'm paralyzed now I have to figure out a different way to get help and at that time I had a friend who had an accident where he came up short of a runway at night and he was able to call in on one and then the rescuers came to the airport but they couldn't see him and he was able to use pinned in the airplane he was able to turn lights on and they could see it and then and then they found him and so that was my first thought I got to get all the lights on on this airplane and I was reaching for the switch panel where the lights were and I couldn't get him to work it turned out there kind of sunk into the panel and then I had an overhead interior light and it was an alder Mooney and had a rotary knob to turn it on and off and the rotary knob would only work when you turn it one direction you know and my hands were really cold and I didn't have the strength of a you know to be able to turn it the correct way I turned the wrong way but I couldn't turn that other way so I wasn't able to get any lights on for a second so I mean you just you had made that call then you you came to with the clear sky and read how an actual time how long were you sitting on the ground when you woke up well it's all estimated based on FlightAware data I was in the air for an hour and a half okay after that and then I was probably based on when I lost flight aware until when I caught rescued was about an hour and a half so I was probably a half an hour half an hour on the ground path on the ground passed out okay two hours total alright so you tried the knob and then yep couldn't get that to work and then I started searching around the cockpit for other stuff I found my phone but it was they had an error message on it and I was I couldn't get it to do anything I just threw it in the back I don't know I should have kept it but I didn't think I did find my iPad and I was pretty excited about that and I knew I was what direction I was flying when I lost consciousness and I was just curious if I was in Minnesota I was in Iowa and so I looked at it and I found I was in Minnesota and they through the side I could have used that signal like just don't really it was like m'as like college days Friday night you know it was stumbling around who was yeah I was very impaired so and while all this started happening I don't recall when but I noticed that there was a helicopter flying over and it was flying in east to west than west to east and it was getting closer and closer and I knew they were looking for me so I felt confident people are out looking for me but I still felt like I needed to get out and get to help so as I was sitting there I remembered the movies and you know yo hear about if you're paralyzed you always wiggle your toes if you can wiggle your toes there ok so I started thinking real hard about that and I started wiggling my toes and I thought oh ok this is good I'm not paralyzed it turns out it was just really really weak from carbon dioxide poisoning is forced hypoxia and so it's such little oxygen in my body I just didn't have any energy so I went I got my right leg out fairly quickly and then my left leg was pinned under the rudder pedal school I kind of crunched on it and so I had to fiddle around with that for a while and then when I finally did I opened the door of the airplane and got on the wing and my wife had sent along a pair of bib overalls in case I had a forced landing because they're nice and warm and she's like you put those on and you can hike to hell for whatever so I had a car a jacket in the back and then I had the car overalls so I got the bib overalls out and I was trying to put them on and I due to my injuries and my you know well it turned out I had broken my upper jaw knocked out some teeth oh my and then broke three vertebrae in my back and there was some other you know bruises and bangs like I'm in pain or anything like I can imagine if he were conscious and had this accident then he'd have that adrenaline rush but you didn't it's 30 yeah exactly yeah I think the lack of oxygen helps monoxide is a great anesthetic anyone wants to do any any work on the side yeah so I didn't feel anything there and the I'm not a video game player but I've seen those first-person video games where they'll have a grenade go off or something and I'll have everything a red color and that ringing you know and then your ice beam the flashbang I had that ringing it was very strong ring so there's probably some head injury there so I had a loud ringing in my ears and I was just I wasn't a hundred percent cognitive of what was going on but I didn't feel any pain I did realize how cold I was but I don't I didn't feel it in a traditional sense I think I felt it because I was numb at that point so I get out of the airplane I get the bib overalls out and I lay down on the wing and I'm trying to put him on and I couldn't run out for a while and that wasn't working so I grabbed my car jacket and put it on I couldn't zip it up and another dexterity in my hands at that point so then I went back in the plane and tried to find my hat and my gloves and my flashlight and everything that I had organized and everything was gone yeah the airplane will rearrange itself yeah really been certain things weren't even found after the airplane was recovered and so I mean it it was pretty violent so then I decided as I just had my car jacket on I couldn't zip it up and I thought I'm gonna set off towards that light at this time I hadn't looked around with the surroundings at all I just was focused on where that light was I took about three steps and fell down and then I got up and took a few more steps and fell down and I would I would only be able to go three or four steps and I'd fall sometimes I'd fall backwards and I remember swearing because it wasn't netting me the direction I was trying to go and I'm like I got to do that over I was really mad yelling to the light I didn't it was so far away and I hadn't seen it after I got on the airplane I hadn't seen again I just saw it when I was pinned you just head in that direction and get heading that direction it turned out I was just walking towards the middle of a field and it was sort of downhill so remember when you're 20 in college you kind of go path least resistance and I was sort of stumbling downhill and I made it about 75 200 yards from the airplane and then I fell down and I rolled over in the helicopters coming back and was going right over the top of me and I I'd yelled and did everything and they just kept truckin and I realized that if they didn't see me they're not gonna they flew over the airplane for myself and they didn't see me I was getting really comfortable at this point I was tired and I just kind of settled in and I laid down and I felt really really comfortable I should get warm and I'm like you know what if they find me great if they don't I don't really care either I'm just staying right here and well this is the neat part of the story three years prior February 7th three years in 2014 my wife was pregnant and we I was loner into the the truck to take her to the airport or in the airport I'm a pilot right go to the hospital to the hospital have a baby our second or second baby and we knew it was a girl but you don't have a carbon monoxide now no sometimes long-term effects I tell my wife right so I'm load her in to go to the hospital to have our baby girl and we didn't we hadn't named her yet what we knew it was a girl and I'm loading her into the van or the truck and she my wife said we don't have a name for her yet you know and I looked up and one of the names were kicking around was Maya and it was after the star in the Pleiades star cluster which is always prevalent in the night sky and I remember looking up at the car you know pushing her into the car like we gotta go and seeing that I said hey we can name her Maya and so that's what we ended up naming her and as I'm laying there in the field all comfortable I'm staring right at Pleiades and that moment of of putting my wife in the car flashed into my memory and up until that point I hadn't thought about who I was or who I had a family I thought about any of that stuff and that just flashed me into my life and gave me the strength to just try to go get help and it was it was a really refreshing experience because it was the first I thought to myself if I if I get up and this hurts because it hurt walking I think I said I didn't feel pain but I mean I remember I didn't want to go anymore if it hurt trying to get to help and I didn't make it I mean the end results the same as we lay in here so it doesn't it's not real sacrifice so I have to try to get to help and that that was really refreshing because it was the first time in my adult life thought I only had one thing to do I don't worry about anything and if I worry about paying bills or being someplace on time or anything it's that one thing to do and that was that was a blessing in the whole accident because it was part of the experience that I I'm fond of and I kind of looked back on but I then sat up and kind of looked around was the first time I really look back at the airplane and I hate to admit this but part of me knows because I wasn't parrot I looked at the airplane and I was like yeah I crashed that but anyway so I noticed I noticed the other side of the airplane there was woods and trees and and beyond the woods and trees there was a service light and some outbuildings and it was clear that was the closest thing to me and so I thought I'd have to go there and I didn't know if as outbuildings from a farm and there wasn't gonna be a farmhouse I didn't know what it was but I was hoping that someone would be there so I walked back towards the airplane and then as time progressed I was able to have more energy and more strength than I was able to walk further so I did fall a little bit and crawl going back to the airplane but it was better than the trip house and then I got back to the airplane I remember you walking up to the horizontal stabilizer and giving it a tap and and thanking it because I understood the gravity the situation at that time and then I set off to the woods and I got up the edge of the woods and there was all this brush and you know kind there's gnarly undergrowth and I'm standing there and I remember thinking to myself if I was healthy I would walk around this I said but I want to go there and it's in the way I'm going straight I don't care so I go into this brush and I get stuck and I'm all tangled up and I'm fighting it and I couldn't figure it out and I realize I was pressed up against a barbed wire fence but fortunately I had a Carhartt jacket on and that's like Powerman so I dropped down I crawled under the fence and then once I was in the woods it was it was good because there's trees I could sort of bounce myself but then it was also bad because there was about a foot of snow in the field the snow is windswept and there wasn't much snow and so as I'm falling I started to my hands got like bricks I couldn't move my fingers and I'm kind of crawling through it and I was very upset that I might live and then my hands were gonna be gone that really bothered me so I made it up through the woods and I got it makes us out building kind of shimmied along it and then I turned and I could see a house and there was a blue flicker of a TV in the window and it was just the greatest sight I've ever seen I made it over there and pound it on the window and kind of was yelling help me and this great this great woman her name is Cynthia Crabtree this was her house and her husband was he's retired but he drives school bus for the girls you know sports teams say he wasn't home it was just her out in the country and this guy the bloody face is pounding on our window and she was great she she her story was she invited me in through her garage my story my memory was like pushed my way in but I I would just wanted warmth at that time and I came in and sat down at the at her table and told her to call 9-1-1 and she did but she was kind of panicky I found out later she was calling 911 working and it turns out her son was a state patrol and she called him and he goes we're looking for a guy like we're right there and so then she he he got the authorities coming and they were there there was a deputy there within two minutes I mean he's right in the area looking and then I had her call my wife and I remembered her phone number believe it or not and my wife didn't quite understand what a why some woman from Ellen Dale Minnesota was calling her and then the helicopter that was flying over turned out to be a medevac and it I don't know the whole story but it was either airborne when I was or ATC said hey we got an airplane down and they volunteered to come look but of course they didn't have didn't have a night vision or I had a 1:21 five ELT they could hear it but they couldn't track it and but they they were able to land and within a minute so a helicopter and heading to the Mayo Clinic okay so going back to when you walk by your plane and you tap the stabilizer hmm at that point you're starting to get a little bit more clarity did you think I must have had carbon monoxide are you real just like I I don't know what you did maybe you just went to fell asleep oops bad me I didn't think that deep I didn't think about why it happened at all and so that was interesting I got airlifted to the Mayo Clinic and their fantastic job in ICU but they were really concerned with why I passed out and it wasn't apparently it is a protocol when a pilot comes in that they just test for carbon monoxide and they at this time they had me on oxygen and I was really talking talking if I was talking to the nurses where are you from I was just it's crazy I was in a plane crash you know and coincidentally when you go to ICU from a plane crash you get really good treatment you're like you're a rock star it's amazing like that's the guy so so that was good but I remember one of the doctors had been there for a while I think they might already sewed my lacerations in my face I think they fixed that up and I remember coming up to me and she said we need to know why you passed out and I think at this time they did CT scan they did EKG they were trying to figure out if a heart attack they had no idea and all that stuff wasn't showing anything and and she said we have to know why what did you do what what's wrong with you you know you thirty nine year olds just don't pass up and I said I have no idea and she was walking away and then it occurred to me some carbon dioxide she has check for that and she said no and they came and drew blood and off they went and ten minutes later she came back with like a smile on her face and she's just like yeah that's what it was so my my carboxyhemoglobin level which was thirteen point nine percent typical you're gonna be zero to one percent smokers will be ten but it has a half-life of five hours so this at this point we're already five hours out from the crash so I would have been double that plus I was breathing pure oxygen a lot of that time so even it shortens a half-life so I was probably the NTSB figured around 30% oh yeah so what we're so I want to know kind of the immediate after effect of it so did you have any immediate prolonged health issues what about the NTSB or the FAA like there's so much to you know no prolonged health issues that we know of right there might be cognitive ones I probably was a lot better looking and I'm not I'm pretty sure that I was a lot better looking before but fortunately I went to the Mayo Clinic and doctor in the in the ICU they're recognized as a carbon dioxide and it was important to get me hyperbaric treatments so I was in the hyperbaric chamber at Mayo within 12 hours of the crash and I did three treatments of that each treatment was about three to four hours long and that had two great effects they've there's some say the show that it helps with the long-term effects cover monoxide and so I haven't had any other recurring symptoms that they look for and the side effect benefit was I had frostbite so bad in my hands all the doctors were telling me I would never have feeling in my fingers again but i beliebe act about 80 or 90 percent and it's good enough now it's it's fine and how long ago was this accident three years three years everywhere 2817 okay and but I attribute the healing of all the frostbite with the hyperbaric treatment Wow I think so it's been a bit of a miracle the FAA and the NTSB have been nothing but great the NTSB investigator delyth was fantastic as I say NTSB he did okay I'm both NTSB nfa we're great the NTSB investigator actually became friends with she's since retired but she was great when I was talking with her early on she asked if I'd be willing to work with them on safety products because she said it's always best when we have a victim to promote things and she goes as carbon dioxide never leaves victims so this is this is a big deal and I figure it was the least I could do there was a similar story that happened in 20 1997 that guy in a Comanche 400 Missouri same thing he was went to sleep and he woke up in a field and he did a little bit of advocacy but I feel like we need to remind people and you know to prevent people like myself to do this again yeah oh wow and there's about one that's on average that's about one fatality a year from carbon monoxide Wow so it's not a big big problem but it's something we can fix so can you fly today yeah okay absolutely yeah I bought a another Mooney about six months ago five months ago okay did they find out where the carbon monoxide came from yes it was a it was a traditional classic crack in the exhaust and the heat exchanger and there was about 700 hours on the exhaust exhaust was about seven years old I think if I remember right and the flight before this day of flights a series of flights I took my wife and kids out for ice cream and when we were there was an airport that I was weird to have ice cream in January in Minnesota but we flew down to get ice cream and when I was starting up to come home there was a backfire and it startled my wife and she and I had to calm her down it was just a backfire it's not a big deal well in reality the better plane to never back for it I mean since I owned it maybe that's when the crack happened didn't either in either exacerbated it or it constant okay did you not have a CO detector and do not know did not they're not so I tried to take away yeah that's obviously take away and I've done a lot of research since but CO and and if all the other crashes and there's a lot of things I did wrong on this flight one is the carbon monoxide detector and I and the blames all myself but I think that the way it's been taught to us carbon dioxide in in all the aviation syllabuses and things the way the FAA teaches it is a little misguided because they'll give us numbers about our carboxyhemoglobin percentage and what it means well it doesn't mean you'll pilot because we're not going to get and tested they also give us they give us symptoms but the way they read the symptom it really feels like it's gonna be a linear scale and when you start to get it you're gonna start to get a slight headache that that's gonna get worse you're gonna start feeling nausea I always assumed it was gonna be this linear scale where I just started feeling worse and worse and worse and I also assumed that it was only gonna happen in winter with the heater on and so I thought as a good pilot I would I would be able to catch it because I'd say well the heaters on I got a headache this makes sense the problem is by the time you're experiencing symptoms your cognitive ability has been compromised enough that it's harder to make it's just like hypoxia it's a force cybox yeah yeah so okay so what do you recommend for pilots first a digital CO detector those tabs are terrible you both are see if I was right yeah when I bought my plane the guy who used to own it like two owners before that was the first thing he said what do you got a tab in there get rid of the tabs yeah see if I see if I there's been so many times I've been doing a flight review for someone and you get in and it's 2017 and the tabs has expired in 2004 like what why is that up there you know and the NTSB sort of joked with me - they're like all the tabs are great we know why you crashed you know we know why you died they can look at it so those those are terrible they're terrible for one thing they have a short shelf life and it's hard to recognize them and the night cockpit it would be difficult you have to have the cognitive ability to see it and take action yeah and that's difficult and there's cleaners and things that we use in the cockpit that can mess it and mess it up so the only thing is is a digital detector there's lots of different ones on the market now technology has got it in the last few years that there's tons of them they're inexpensive so preventing carbon dioxide should be like preventing you shouldn't run out of gas you shouldn't have carbon dioxide domes like I said there's great products coming out this century a DSB box has a carbon monoxide detector in it there's all sorts of products on the way that are coming out and I advise it's good to have two of them because if if one isn't working and you don't know it's not working that might be a sense - and there's no chief I have three four actually if you I'm gonna go get another one I'm on my second digital yeah yeah yeah especially after hearing this well dan I want to thank you so much okay sorry the other big takeaway is how to what to do with surviving a crash yeah and another thing you see people talk about is will they always talk about their survival kit what I have for my crash get well we live for people in Alaska that's a different story but most of us in Texas and and Midwest and and just in the continental United say it's almost we don't need a hatchet in paracord and tents and you know fire starters and all this you need a reliable way to get a hold of people for communication so a cell phone obviously is a good one a handheld radio I always had a handheld radio I didn't have it with me I always assumed the handheld I had a handheld radio for when I have a con failure but in reality the handheld radio is so when you're on the ground injured you can dial one twenty one five and talk to the helicopters flying overhead right or whatever it's not really for a confident I didn't have a with me because I had good avionics and that was working well and I just didn't bring it a plb was a great thing to have years before I had a plb that had a strobe on it and it occurred to me even during all this while I was compared if I still had that I'd have a 406 megahertz ELT in my hand and I'd have a strobe for the helicopter and when you crash an airplane things get rearranged so much and there's a good chance you're gonna be pinned or injured you won't get out of the plane you really need everything within reach fixed to the airframe or yourself so I'm wearing this very attractive vest right I don't normally wear vests this is a flight best for me oh I use it I don't have any now but I'll keep all the necessary things I need all the way down to a one of those those whistles so if someone's out tramping through the woods looking for me I can all these blow a whistle so stock yourself with communication devices keep them on you or fix the airframe now my and I was always charged and bolted next to me so that that was a really big takeaway for me Wow well there's a lot to take away oh yes so wasn't crying sorry yeah so thank you thank you so much for well hopefully there's a lot for you to take away please get rid of the tabs if you've got them in your cockpit get a digital CO detector and be safe out there I love the idea of always having your personal handheld radio the attaching it to yourself or to the plane that's a really good one too so we want you guys to be safe and and thank you for watching I hope you enjoyed this I'll see you next time in the hangar [Music] [Music]

Channel: Taking Off

Views: 255,665

Rating: 4.8937593 out of 5

Keywords: takingoff, taking off, mooney, dan bass, airplane crash, flying, general aviation, dan millican, christy wong, in the hangar, inthehangar, carbon monoxide, carbon mono, carbon monoxide poisoning, mooney plane crash, surviving a plane crash, airplane safety, flying instruction, best CO detector, air traffic control, plane crash documentary, general aviation crashes, dan bass mooney, in the hangar show, surviving a plane crash stories, airplane safety video, mooney crash

Id: MfzfP5CZBj8

Length: 42min 43sec (2563 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 06 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/JustPlaneSilly]

Dan Bass took off and passed out shortly after from carbon monoxide poisoning.

He woke up hours later on the ground AFTER the plane had crashed.

Watch this chilling recap of the events.

And ditch the little carbon monoxide tabs and get digital models.

This man is beyond lucky to be alive.

[u/Guysmiley777]

His story is insane, he was also on one of the "There I Was" episodes that the AOPA produces. Pretty chilling take on how CO poisoning can really mess with your cognitive function.

[u/Martin_Pauly]

Amazing story! I bought a Sensorcom CO detector for my Bonanza last year. If I hadn't done that, I would have placed an order the moment I finished watching this interview with Dan Bass.

[u/skellera]

As he mentions here, the Sentry has a CO detector. It’s a good excuse to get one. Considering a digital CO detector is at least $100, the $499 for the sentry seems a little more attractive as you’re getting all the other features (ADS-B, AHRS, etc) for $399.