2006-04-25

Lucky pilot takes a mulligan...

Walks away from fairway crash.
Article here

A chemical engineer said he?s ?lucky to be alive? after making the worst slice of his golfing life as he crashed his $100,000 plane into the 12th hole of a Norwood golf course yesterday.

?I fell a little short? of a hole in one, joked the now-grounded Mark Wilkinson of Lincoln, looking back on his brush with death.

The 42-year-old MIT grad and former ?fanatical? golfer said the engine on his Mooney M201 suddenly cut out as the plane lifted out of Norwood Memorial Airport at 8:26 a.m. His routine business trip swiftly descended into what could have been a deadly dive.

?It?s as close to death as I?ve ever come,? the veteran pilot said. All that was going through his mind, he said, was saving his skin.

His choices: bank and turn back to the airport and risk certain death, he said, or ?try to land straight ahead, as I?ve been taught.?

His instructors would be proud.

Right in front of him was the fairway of the Norwood Country Club?s 12th hole, just a chip shot away from the runway. Wilkinson said he lined up his approach and stuck it.

?I hit hard. The plane didn?t slide. It was like getting hit in the head,? he said. ?Not very many people live through that.?

Wilkinson, who owns a consulting business, was headed for New Jersey yesterday.

After crashing, he jumped out of the wreckage and called the tower, and then called his wife. Then he just walked away from his miraculous, but short-lived, Monday commute.

?I thought I?d get the press going if I started driving balls at the range,? he added.

Exactly why his plane lost power is under investigation by state and federal officials.

At the scene, the plane?s nose was crumpled, and all that was left of the engine was a tangled mess sitting on the ground behind the plane, a propeller sticking out of it.

COMMENTARY:

Man crashes small plane onto golf couse, comes up just short of the green

"Boy, hand me my wedge."

Thank God no beer cart girls were injured.

Right before the crash his engine was making the following noise: Putt.. putt... putt...

Sounded fat.

I hope he yelled "FORE!", otherwise that is just bad etiquette

that must've been quite a divot. I hope he has the courtesy to fill it.

he was probably stroking his wood when his balls got caught in the rough

"Turds"
//Spaulding!
//sorry Grampa

did that one asshat, who is at every golf tournament yell, "GET IN THE HOLE!"?

Did he take off from the ladies' runway?

Lucky pilot takes a mulligan: Walks away from fairway crash So is he going to try again?

Maybe there was something wrong with one of the wings. Maybe there was a
hole in one.

Maybe the plane just needed a better driver.

"You little son of a biatch ball! Why you don't you just go home? That's your HOME! Are you too good for your home? ANSWER ME! SUCK MY WHITE ASS BALL!"

His plane was too steep.

It's time for the billy-baroo..... oohhh...billy...billy...billly... oooohhhh...billllly..billllly..billllly..

I guess he chose to lay up. "He's in the spinach."

Shoulda taken a little more off the tee.

Mind if I play through? How bout a Fresca, hmmmmmm???

He almost ended up 6 under. Not bad at all.

Bet if he'd used a Mooney M20 TN ACCLAIM, he'd have been pin-high.

So what?
So let's dance!
*cranks up the Kenny Loggins*

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