Sometimes it catches up to you...

[Baradium]

Pilot dies from injuries suffered in crash
Published September 27, 2007
By Amanda Bohman


abohman@newsminer.com   

A Fairbanks pilot who was severely injured in a backcountry plane crash last week has died, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Wednesday. Joe Sigmon, 45, will be remembered at Arctic Circle Air for his generosity and work ethic, said his boss, Don Singsaas.


Sigmon died Tuesday at an Anchorage hospital after suffering massive head trauma and internal injuries, including a collapsed lung, said Jay Moore, another pilot and a close friend of Sigmon's since the early 1990s.

Sigmon crashed into Amos Lake on takeoff from a remote airstrip at Mystic Lake Lodge, 80 miles east of McGrath, a report from the NTSB said.

An experienced pilot, Sigmon was ferrying a Short Brothers SC-7 Skyvan that had been damaged during landing earlier in the month at a maintenance facility in Anchorage.

Moore said his friend never regained consciousness after an employee of the nearby lodge pulled him from the wreckage. The airplane's cockpit and forward wings were destroyed in the crash, the NTSB report said.

Sigmon flew for Arctic Circle Air for 10 years, Singsaas said.

"I think he thoroughly enjoyed it," Singsaas said.

Sigmon, a Florida native, was the captain of his high school football team and later a skydiver, Moore said. He worked as a carpenter in Florida and eventually became a contractor, building several houses.

After moving to Alaska, Sigmon flew for MarkAir Express and lived in Kodiak, Bethel and Cold Bay, Moore said. He leaves behind a wife and son.

"He was hard-working," Moore said. "He played hard as well. Alaska suited him real well."

This summer, Sigmon had just finished building a backwoods getaway near Manley, Moore said.

Sigmon liked to help his friends with projects, whether it was building a house or an airplane hangar.

"He was one helluva pilot," Moore said. "He was like a brother to me."

Singsaas, who is the director of operations for Arctic Circle Air, said Sigmon took pride in working for the carrier, even repairing a company sign on his own time, at his own expense and without being asked to do the project.

"That's the kind of guy he was," Singsaas said. "He saw something that needed to be done, and he took it upon himself to do it, without any expectation of any awards. His work ethic was impeccable."

Scott Erickson, an air safety investigator with the transportation board, said the Skyvan will have to be pulled out of 5 feet of water before the probe into the cause of the crash is completed.

A lodge employee who witnessed the crash told the NTSB that Sigmon had started the aircraft's turboprop engines and taxied the length of the airstrip several times.

The gravel airstrip is about 1,000 feet long, and the aircraft was empty after having brought supplies to the lodge.

Sigmon reportedly ran the engines about 30 minutes, according to the witness. On takeoff, he gained about 6 or 7 feet before clipping some trees and crashing into the water, the NTSB report said.

Erickson said the Skyvan was previously damaged while landing at the airstrip on Sept. 1.

The aircraft had been worked on, and the Federal Aviation Administration issued Arctic Circle Air a ferry permit to fly it to Anchorage, the investigator said.

Contact staff writer Amanda Bohman at 459-7544.

[Baradium]

This is all rumor, and probobly will not be confirmed until at least the initial accident report comes out, but he may have been found with the POH in his lap and one of the engines feathered.  Neither one neccessarily means anything at this point, but there is a question on whether he was attempting a single engine takeoff.

Also, apparently he made a large number of runs down the runway.   

It is a short runway at only 1100 ft, but to be doing a 30 minute runup and making multiple high speed runs or aborted takeoffs down the runway doesn't seem to bode well for whatever was going on.

[TheSoccerMom]

I guess I would want stuff lining up pretty good, on an 1100-foot strip....   

[Baradium]

I can think of 3 fatal crashes in AK in the last two weeks... they are showing 8 total crashes right now in the database for the last 10 days.

That's not counting the beaver that was taxiing when the tailwheel fell off...

Guess we're doing our part to keep the feds busy...

[PiperGirl]

Well, this time it wasn't the airplane that got the pilot...

The gentleman that was struck by the minivan worked in the FAA for years, and also was a flight instructor at our airport for a while. Spent most of his life flying, giving checkrides, and teaching others to fly. I guess it supports the theory that planes are safer than cars...We're all hoping for the best outcome, but he's in very critical condition.

http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/10411962.html

SBT24/7News) A man was taken to an area hospital with “very serious injuries” after he was hit by a minivan Tuesday night in the 31000 block of Indiana 2, police at the scene said.

The man, who has not been identified, was standing next to a Chevrolet Suburban on the highway about 8 p.m. when the female driver of the minivan ran into him, police said.

The man was reportedly using the vehicle to pull a refrigerator to the front of a home, and the back end of the Suburban was hanging onto the highway, according to police. He had gotten out of the vehicle to unhook the refrigerator when the woman, who apparently did not see the vehicle, hit him while the man tried to get out of the way.

The woman was not injured, police said.