Pilot walks away from crash

Plane torn to pieces in wreck near Safford Regional Airport

By Adam Gaub, Assistant Editor

An Oklahoma man was able to walk away from a horrific plane crash when it ran out of fuel and crashed near Safford Regional Airport on Wednesday evening, police reports stated.

Jerald Pate, 48, of Muskogee, Okla., a pilot who was flying equipment for Phelps Dodge for the construction at the new Safford Mine, was able to walk nearly a mile and a half from the wreck to the airport hangar. He was in good enough condition to refuse medical treatment, police reports stated, despite the wreck causing Pate’s plane to be torn apart.

Safford Regional Airport Manager Doug Benson, who later went and viewed the wreckage, said it was a miracle Pate was able to walk away from that crash.

“I really can’t conceive how anyone could have walked away from (the crash),” Benson said. “How he went through all that sheet metal and Plexiglas without getting torn up is incredible.”

Benson said other than a few scrapes and being dusty, Pate looked otherwise unharmed when he talked to him at the airport. Medics checked Pate and the airport, but Pate refused to be taken to a hospital, police reports stated.

Pate told Graham County Sheriff’s deputies that he took off from Austin, Texas, after refueling there at 1:50 p.m. He was approaching Safford when he ran out of fuel and his engines shut down. He said his gauges were not reading properly.

Pate told deputies he tried turning on an auxiliary tank, but the plane stalled anyway, dropping from 6,000 feet at speeds estimated to be as high as 80 mph.

The plane slammed into the ground near a ravine about a mile east of the airport, police reports stated, tearing the front half of the twin engine Beechcraft Baron apart.

The plane is registered to Bruce Hensley, also of Muskogee. Pate told deputies the plane was uninsured.

Sheriff’s deputies went out to locate the plane the night of the crash so they could turn off the plane’s emergency locator transmitter signal. When deputies located the aircraft, it was broken in two behind where the seats were located, Commander Dwayne Elders stated in his report.

Pate was transporting eight concrete vibrators and tools to be delivered to the Phelps Dodge mine project just north of Safford. When Sheriff’s deputies returned to the scene, they were able to help Pate get the mostly intact equipment from the wreckage, and helped him get it loaded for delivery the next day, Benson said.