Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Flying Above Colorado's Rocky Mountains, Two Tourists and Pilot of Single-Engine Cessna Crash
Aired January 11, 2002 - 09:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It was supposed to be a short sightseeing trip, flying above Colorado's Rocky Mountains. Instead of cruising, two tourists and the pilot of a single-engine Cessna crashed. The story could have ended there, but it didn't. There was an attempted rescue, then another crash. In the end, after an incredible 20-hour saga, it was a story of survival.
Here's CNN's Sean Callebs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There luck run out close to Purgatory -- Purgatory, Colorado. The two tourists and the pilot survived, nosing into some pine trees. The pilot, 31-year-old Justin Kirkbride, trudging off for help, even though Purgatory had froze over.
LT. DAN BENDER, LA PLATA CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT.: He chose to walk out because he was in the best of health between the three. And his goal, which he actually chose, was to reach a point where he could get out on a cell phone to call for help, but that took him approximately six hours.
CALLEBS: Despite their best efforts, the rescue helicopter from nearby Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico ended up in a heap. It crashed not long after picking up Kirkbride, after the rotor clipped some trees.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At that point, the aircraft decided to do a couple of 360s and land. For the second time in matter of hours, Kirkbride was rudely reintroduced to the Earth, this time only a mile from the original accident site. Again, no serious injuries, but by now, it was 3:00 in the morning and the tourist were freezing.
BENDER: They were not prepared for this. It was unseasonably warm in Farmington when they departed. One of the subjects was wearing shorts, and the other was wearing a light jacket and pants.
CALLEBS: The passengers were dazed, bloodied and had broken bones.
TOMMY ROBBINS, PASSENGER: When I first came to -- I opened my eyes and Justin was dragging me through the snow. I was bleeding everywhere.
CALLEBS: Daylight brought the safe arrival of rescue teams, a helicopter and several snowcats. Rescue coordinators credit Kirkbride for guts and brains.
BUTCH KNOWLTON, EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS: Excellent job of remembering and describing and getting us back to a particular location.
CALLEBS: The man who walked away from two crashes in one day is taking it all in stride.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the pilot in the command. These are my passengers. I've got to take care of them.
CALLEBS: Despite the odds and the elements, Kirkbride and his two passengers can forever cling to a story that rescuers say is simply hard to fathom.
Sean Callebs, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Pretty amazing.
Justin Kirkbride, the pilot of the first plane and the survivor of the chopper crash joining us from Durango, Colorado.
Good morning. It's nice to have you here.
JUSTIN KIRKBRIDE, CESSNA PILOT: Good morning.
COOPER: Justin, Are you the luckiest guy or unluckiest guy in the world?
KIRKBRIDE: I'm not sure the answer to that is, to be honest. I feel pretty lucky, though.
COOPER: Yes, I would imagine you do. Do you know why your Cessna went down?
KIRKBRIDE: Basically we just had to land, so that's what we did.
COOPER: All right. When the plane landed, though, the landing was basically cushioned by some trees. You landed at something over 100 miles per hour, is that correct?
KIRKBRIDE: Oh no, we were considerably slower than that. I had slowed the aircraft down to probably about 65-70 miles per hour, somewhere in there, and then we used trees to continue slowing down, and basically the trees broke the fall and we landed after that.
COOPER: Was there any concern after the landing that the plane might explode? Was there leaking fuel?
KIRKBRIDE: Absolutely. There was a considerable amount of fuel that was leaking. The electrics were still on. I turned off the electrics, and then I had my passengers -- I had the right passenger get out of the aircraft, and then I dragged Tommy out from the back, and that was absolutely a concern.
COOPER: You went out -- you went to get help on own. Is that because the two passengers were injured?
KIRKBRIDE: Well, I knew Tommy would be OK, and I knew he could take care of Larry. So that left me with being the obvious choice to walk out. So you find help, you use your cell phone. You get ultimately an Air Force chopper to come, and you go in that chopper to rescue, and then that chopper went down. What went through your mind when the chopper started to go down?
KIRKBRIDE: Well, in all honesty, I really didn't realize we were in too big a trouble until about, I don't know, maybe five or six seconds before we hit the ground. And at that point, I just kind had to smile and think, wow, this is just amazing. It was very surreal.
COOPER: Did the other people in the chopper, once they had all safely exited the chopper, look at you, like, I can't believe we're flying with you?
(LAUGHTER)
KIRKBRIDE: Actually, they thought I was fortunate they had me with them, because apparently, when people crash with me, everybody lives.
COOPER: I guess that is one optimistic way to look at it.
KIRKBRIDE: Absolutely.
COOPER: You then spent the night in the wild, is that correct?
KIRKBRIDE: Yes. that's true.
COOPER: Were you prepared for that? Did you have warm-weather gear?
KIRKBRIDE: No. I had exactly what I walked out in. I had a light jacket on and my tennis shoes, and a pair of pants.
COOPER: So how did you spend night?
KIRKBRIDE: We built a campfire, and we sat around and talked. We -- everybody knew where we were, and we knew that the rescuers were on the way to original crash site. We weren't all that concerned as far as our safety was concerned. Everybody was healthy, and it was just a matter of sitting there and waiting. That's what we did.
COOPER: Does this make you hesitant to fly if the future?
KIRKBRIDE: No. Actually not. I actually flew from the second crash site on a helicopter.
COOPER: You did? You got on another helicopter, even though you crashed twice before?
KIRKBRIDE: I did.
COOPER: Denial ain't just a river, is it?
(LAUGHTER)
KIRKBRIDE: I don't think that's necessarily the case.
COOPER: Well, want to wish you the best, and we're glad everything worked out for you. And I'm not sure I should say hope you're flying again soon, but if that's what you want, I hope you are.
KIRKBRIDE: I hope I am flying again soon; I just hope I am not crashing again soon.
COOPER: I definitely hope that. Thanks a lot Justin for joining us this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.
KIRKBRIDE: Thank you, Anderson.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
