Turns out showing up on Prom Night with a scraped arm was the least crazy part of Hatten Gleue’s day.
Gleue, 18, of rural Neosho Falls, helped in the rescue of two men who crashed their single-engine aircraft just outside of Chanute the afternoon of April 23.
The pilot, John Von Fange, 43, of South Carolina, and his passenger, Troy Duck, 35, of Kannapolis, N.C., were both treated for minor injuries after the crash, and are thankful for Gleue’s quick-thinking.
Gleue, who spoke with the Register in a telephone interview, shared how the incident allowed him an opportunity to fulfill a pair of childhood fantasies most any teen-age farm boy likely harbored at one point or another. (More on those later.)
TROUBLES started for Von Fange shortly before 3 p.m. last Thursday when his 2020 Cirrus SR 22 Turbo lost engine power as he flew over northern Neosho County.
Attempts to land at Chanute’s Martin Johnson Airport went awry because cloud cover made it impossible for Von Fange to line up to the airport’s runway.
So he sought the next-best option: a nearby field.
As the fixed-wing plane descended, Von Fange deployed one of its key safety features, an airframe parachute system to prevent the aircraft from plummeting to Earth.
The parachute worked as designed — at first — as it successfully prevented a harder crash landing.
But it soon became a hindrance as the constant south winds, with gusts well in excess of 20 mph, kept the parachute fully inflated, dragging the plane along the empty field.
That’s when Gleue came onto the scene.
AS GLEUE neared the crash site, he saw several vehicles slowing — some even stopped — for what he thought was a low-flying hot air balloon.
“I thought it was a little windy to be flying one of those,” he noted.
But as he drew closer Gleue saw not a balloon, but the still-fully inflated parachute pulling the overturned plane toward the highway.
Then came the sobering reality.
The passengers were still inside the aircraft.
