Community Corner
Rector in Plane Crash: ‘There Was No Time to React’
Rev. Frank Allen of St. David's Episcopal Church in Wayne said the outpouring of support is "humbling."
Rev. Frank Allen of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Wayne was starting a sabbatical with a family vacation with a National Geographic Alaskan cruise.
But about 10 minutes into a pontoon plane ride heading to LeConte Glacier on June 4, the plane, which was carrying Allen, his wife, their three sons and another passenger, took a turn and stalled over steep terrain near Petersburg, Alaska.
“The pilot tried to get the speed back up, turning left and that is when we crashed into the mountain,” Allen wrote in a recent letter to parishioners. “There was no time to react or to be afraid.”
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Fellow passenger Thomas Rising, 66, of New Mexico, was killed in the crash. Allen and the plane’s pilot suffered minor injuries, and immediately after the crash they signaled for rescue planes, he said.
“We started a fire and tried to keep it going, but starting a fire with the general dampness and rain in Alaska is like throwing logs into a pool and trying to light them,” Allen said in a statement about the event.
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After three hours, the United States Coast Guard arrived on the scene.
Allen’s wife Amy suffered a broken ankle and internal injuries while their youngest son Ben came out with fractured vertebrae, and were both flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to St. David’s. Their middle son Rob had a broken arm and oldest son Will suffered a laceration to the forehead.
After the accident, Allen and his other sons returned to the cruise boat to talk to Rising’s widow and other passengers, who were all a part of a university alumni cruise, before traveling on to Seattle. The family members are now home recovering from their injuries.
“It was an amazing and terrible event in our lives, but I believe that God saved us. I believe God saved us, not because we deserved it in any way, but because God was showing His great love and has a purpose for our lives going forward,” Allen wrote in his letter to parishioners.
Allen will remain on sabbatical until the end of the summer.
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