Family survives plane mishap

SANDPOINT — Three members of a local family are happy to be back on firm ground today after their airplane experienced catastrophic engine failure 6,300 feet above Hailey last Friday, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing.

Piloting the family’s single engine plane was Dover’s Bruce Pedersen who, along with his wife, Heather, 13-year-old daughter, Rio, and the family dog were returning to Sandpoint from a trip to Nebraska

Pedersen took off from Sheridan, Wyo., Friday morning en route to Sandpoint but decided to divert to Hailey after learning of ominous weather to the north. Aproximately 22 miles southeast of Hailey, he noticed a small vibration developing in the front of the plane.

The vibration soon evolved into a violent shaking and the plane began to lose power. With black smoke billowing out of the engine and only miles from an airstrip at Hailey’s Friedman Memorial Airport, Peder-sen shut off the engine and was able to hang on long enough to put the plane down at the airport with a dead stick landing.

A pilot with six year of experience, Pedersen was able to stay relatively calm while applying standard aviation emergency procedures to land the plane.

“We were all able to just hold it together and we did everything we were supposed to do,” he said. “Even if we would have had to land in a field, I think there’s a good chance we all would have walked away safely.”

Once safely on the ground, Heather Pedersen said she was immediately struck by the magnitude of the situation. She credits her husband’s calm-under-pressure personality for being able handle what could have been a disastrous experience.

“I don’t think I could have brought that plane down,” she said. “I would have just been panicked. I don’t know if I would have given up, but I sure would have been a hell of a lot more terrified.”

With a few days to process the event, Heather Pedersen thinks back about the small decisions — such as rerouting to Hailey — that most likely saved her family’s life.

“Had we not been rerouted, we would have been over the Sawtooth Mountains the following day, or over the Bob Marshall Wilderness headed to Sandpoint,” she said. “I truly believe that God had us in the palm of His hand, as if He knew the piston was going to blow, and He put us exactly in the air with the right pilot behind the yoke to bring about the least catastrophic possible outcome.”

The incident brought out fire and rescue units from the cities of Hailey and Bellevue, as well as a unit from the Wood River Fire and Rescue agency, according to the Idaho Mountain Express.

Even though the experience ended well, Pedersen said it was heartening to see that the Hailey community is equipped and prepared to handle potentially catastrophic events.

“It was good to know that had something gone wrong or it turned out worse, the quality of the team that’s there when things like this happen is amazing,” he said.

The cause of the engine failure has yet to be confirmed, but is believed to be a sheared connecting rod belt, according to Pedersen.