Something Burning Fell From The Sky
Saturday, November 10, 2012
A conversation between father
And son through headphones and mic
Ceased from poor reception
Full of static and interference
Somewhere over San Benito County
Near Paicines--McCreary Ranch Road
7,000 feet on the grasslands below
Gaining altitude in declining day
In order to bound the crest
Of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range
84 miles to the East
(better to not see the immensity
and totality by flying over at night
--no comfort in knowing a naked lady
of stone on green velvet reclines
waiting for every kind of weather
to come to her--down there somewhere)
Route filed at the airport:
A cross-country flight departed
Salinas to Omaha Eppley Airfield
Then on to Springfield Missouri
Visual meteorological conditions prevailed
An ardent night arrived at 7:00
Instrument flight rule plan was filed
Due East over the Coast Range
Cessna 421C twin-engine aircraft
Six passenger latitude two seats and two benches
Ascending a thousand feet every ten miles
Working one’s way upward
With other air traffic over the valley
Through the narrow Plexiglas windshield
Lights like tractors at night plowing
Unforgiving land in the dark above and below
A cruise rate of 210 miles per hour
In the outline of patchy evening clouds
Elevation 9,000 feet in green dashboard glow
Clouds well-placed far below
A tail-wind in order make Omaha by 10 P.M.
To deliver his father home
He must climb to near 26,000 feet
Fly unimpeded at 240 miles an hour
And be in Springfield by 1:00 A.M.
The airplane reached Clovis coincident
Very high Omni-directional radio range
Attaining stated cruise altitude
The pilot reported to air traffic control
He had now leveled off at 27,000 feet
Two Continental GTS 10-520
Flat-six turbocharged engines
Plied the night and emerging stars
Take-off weight: calculated in suitcases
From the long father and son weekend
Of intemperate self-indulgence
At Skip Barber Racing School at Laguna Seca
Race Track near Monterey California
A mutual love of cars
Driving fast (flying faster)
Paying speeding tickets promptly
Promising to be more careful next time
Mormon Bishop Eagle Scout
Boy Scout leader
Utah and Nebraska National Guard officers
Brigham Young University graduate
Mayo Medical School Rochester Minnesota
Specialty in anesthesiology
Renowned at Mercy Hospital
Dedicated to easing the pain of others
Pain management
Relief from the suffering of modern life
Silver Beaver winner
Married in the Logan Temple
Trophy wife Veronica and the four children
Soon joined in death with his father
Hard worker and devoted optimist
A compassionate man
The pilot himself would know the symptoms
The effects of oxygen deprivation
While pulling back on the wheel and throttle
Airspeed 240 miles per hour at 27,000 feet
50 minutes out of Salinas
[air traffic control radar:
Cessna 421C N700EM took off
From Salinas Municipal Airport at 1835
By 7:20 P.M. at 27,000 feet
FAA monitoring on radar saw the aircraft
On a heading of 060 magnetic toward Clovis
The aircraft began a 15-degree turn left
No further transmissions from the pilot
The plane continued at the same
Heading and altitude
Descended then disappeared]
---the pilot’s wife reported
To the local Springfield TV news
With her four little children in front of her
That her husband preferred to fly at night
And was very mindful of safety---
Began a successive turn right
The pilot contemplated refueling
Somewhere before Omaha perhaps Tonopah
When ills that follow the flesh
Became heir to disaster
The aircraft broke and fell apart
At 1920 Pacific Standard Time
Plastic windows blew out
Outboard wings tore into pieces
From the inboard wings and fuselage
Tail and rudder cut adrift
Engines kept turning propellers in slow-motion
Batting shards of aviation-grade aluminum
In the sudden downturn
Final radar recorded the plane plummeting
190 to 350 knots per hour
The speed of the object’s motion
Proportional to the force of gravity
For the following six minutes
A five mile-long cluster of debris emanated
From the compass heading 150 degrees
Showered the forest 21,000 feet below
The weightlessness of his descent
Was like the anesthetic he dispensed
If he knew there was water below
A high-Sierra lake filled with snow-melt
He might contort himself crescent-shaped
And like a side-show confidence man
From a platform thirty-five feet in the sky
Dive into a sweating glass of water
Moving downward in the unfathomable abyss
He heard only the unbearable sound
Of falling---no pain
Only the realization that in the next
Or the next or the very next moment
Would be his death
---and not only his total loss
Someone in Shaver Lake
In the Alpine Sierra at 5,627 feet elevation
Sitting in front of a television set
Looking out the window
To a silhouette of black trees
And darkening skies
Called the TV news in Fresno to report:
Something burning fell from the sky
(TV used this as a teaser for the 11:00 newscast)
Then a violent release of energy---
Impacted the terrain
Accompanied by a loud explosion
Shock waves quaked the granite bedrock
Sheriffs responded to several 911 calls
Near the intersection of Dinkey Creek and Nevins Roads
Called in the helicopter
Crews spotted the fiery main wreckage
In a wooded area 150 feet off the roadside
A body strapped upside-down in a burning fuselage
Frame partially consumed by fire after the crash
The cabin in-board wings both engines
Tailcone and vertical stabilizer on a rocky outcropping
Deputies searched the area for more devastation
A debris field on a bearing of 150 degrees
Right and left wings located 2,500 feet
From the main wreckage
The elevator tips and left horizontal
Stabilizer aft spar 1,700 feet
Further downrange
There was no black box.