More information on the Blanchard Flight Crash

The following is an expert from the pilot’s account of the accident,as told to the pilot’s parents…

Everyone is curious as to what happened. We heard conflicting stories and have now
been able to talk to Mike and the two other surviving passengers. They had planned a
lunch at the catfish restaurant. They had talked about weight and balance, runway length,
temperatures, and determined the aircraft was quite capable of that runway. All three
have same story about fact that a normal approach and touchdown occurred. Mike takes
pride in his landings (as do all pilots) and said it was one of his better ones and very
smooth. Shortly after touchdown the right wing dropped to the ground and the propeller
was digging into the dirt after what appeared to be a gear failure on right side.

That caused a quick turn to the right and they hit a tree or embankment that caused a
sudden stop. They said that on impact there was immediately fire and smoke in the cabin
of the aircraft. The door they could not open in front. Mike said he laid on his side and
literally kicked the door off the hinges for them to exit. The three escapees were
hollering and looking for the other fellow. Apparently his seat broke loose from the floor
and threw him against ceiling. He was just sitting quietly in his seat. Mike entered the
burning aircraft to pull the guy out and got badly burned while the fellow made no effort
to help. They surmised he was addled with trauma from the impact or whatever else
slowed him down.

All three survivors were taken to local hospital. Mike was airlifted to Dallas. One fellow
had no noticeable injuries and the other was released a couple or three hours later.
I was told the Federal Aviation Agency has issued preliminary finding on accident and
say gear failure was cause. They stated that the pilot did everything right and that had
there not been an experienced pilot at the controls it could easily have turned over and
maybe taken all their lives.