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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