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Europa-List: Jos Okhuisen

Subject: Europa-List: Jos Okhuisen
From: David Joyce <davidjoyce@doctors.org.uk>
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:33:25
Just back from Wels in Austria where Bruce Morris, Mark Burton and I spent a 
fair bit of time with Jos following his recent accident. He is in reasonable 
spirits and making good progress medically. He looks like a boxer who picked 
the wrong opponent, but is marvellously cheerful and positive to talk to, 
and there seems real hope that his eye will recover. His burnt areas that 
have been grafted with artificial skin are healing well.
           We saw the wreckage of the plane and it appeared that the 
propeller was in zero pitch or possibly negative. This fits with Jos's 
description of events, that he climbed normally to 800ft, changed to cruise 
mode, realised he had that set at too low rpm and decreased pitch to bring 
rpm up to 5000 but then the engine speed rose above 6000 and he lost thrust, 
and all attempts to change pitch then made no difference. The land ahead 
area was heavily built up and he did a great job to get down more or less in 
one piece. He initially aimed for a road but saw a power cable at the last 
moment and swerved to land in a tree. The plane then fell out of the tree 
and in short time caught fire, but he had not lost consciousness (he says it 
is because Laplanders have thick heads!), and was able to get out pretty 
quickly, suffering burns to just his lower legs, and trauma around his right 
eye (?due to a branch)
          His address for those who want to send best wishes is:
                Klinicum Wels, Traumatology, 1st Floor
                Grieskirchener Strasse 42
                4600 Wels,  Austria
Regards, David Joyce, G-XSDJ 



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