Local pilot locates downed plane, survivors south of Leadville

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10/1/2008 2:08:00 PM

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Local pilot locates downed plane, survivors south of Leadville

Kathy Davis
Times Reporter

Around noon on Monday, Sept. 29, local flight instructor Mickey Russell located a plane that crashed in the mountains around 11:14 a.m. south of Leadville and relayed the GPS coordinates to rescuers for the three survivors.

According to The Herald Democrat, pilot Brian Eaton, 32, Watkins, Colo., and passenger Mike DeBakey, age and address unknown at this time, were flown by Flight for Life to a command site at Highway 24 and CR 7 and were believed to be OK. The third person, Tammy DeBakey, age and address not available at this time, who was being attended to by a nurse at the wreckage site, was then picked up by Flight for Life and flown to a Frisco hospital for possible pelvic and head injuries.

The cause of the crash is unknown at this time, according the The Herald Democrat. The wreckage location was at 11,800 feet, south of Leadville, east of the highway near Two Bit Gulch, South Peak and Big Union Gulch.

Russell said he and student pilot Tanner Norton, 18, Watsonville, Calif., flew from Salida to Leadville to do a practice landing. When they were returning and were just a few miles south of Leadville, they picked up a faint call on a plane crash about 10 miles south of Leadville.

They started searching. They picked up an emergency beacon. Russell said he knew time was of essence. The two took turns looking and flying, flying in a grid pattern in the area until the emergency beacon grew louder,

They searched the hills east and then west side of ridgelines. Within 25-30 minutes, they located an inverted airplane on the ground. Two people were walking around and one was lying on the ground. Russell and the student pilot circled to let the survivors know they were located and relayed the coordinates to a United Airlines pilot who notified the Air Traffic Control in Denver. Russell owns Russell Aviation.

"It feels good to help somebody," he said.

Norton is finishing up his pilot's license and plans to join the U.S. Coast Guard. He wants to be a rescue swimmer.

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