Small Plane Crash Hero Honored By Tredyffrin Police

TREDYFFRIN, PA —It was a beautiful day in June, but Bob Mueller wasn’t golfing; he needed to find a place to land his plane quickly.

Luckily, he was over the St. Davids Golf Club in the Wayne section of Tredyffrin Township, which had just enough open space to crash land his plane without harming anyone on the ground.

“To me, this was a routine landing,” Mueller said, with a chuckle Wednesday morning, one day before the one-year anniversary of when his plane made a forced landing on the golf course.

"I didn't mess up the tee. I run on golf courses."

Mueller and his wife, Patricia, both 71, of Ambler, were among those receiving commendations from the Tredyffrin Township police Wednesday during an awards ceremony honoring that event and other police actions during the year.

T. Michael Beaty, superintendent of police, commended Mueller, his wife, and the golfers, Michael Stanley and Owen Beisty, who helped them out of the wreckage, as well as the Tredyffrin police officers. St. Davids Golf Club representatives Dean Kandle, Jim Mack, and Tyler Santacroce were also commended.

Beaty commended the pilot for landing in an open area near the club’s maintenance building, approximately 100 yards north of Upper Gulph Road.

Remembering June 1, 2022

Mueller recalled the details of the day his single-engine Cirrus SR22 crash landed near the 14th hole of the course around 3:30 p.m.

Mueller was flying to the Wings Field in Blue Bell, Plymouth Township, from Fort Myers, Fla., with a stop for fuel in South Carolina.

“My plane has a parachute behind the back seat,” he said. “There is a lever on the ceiling. I pulled it. I remember looking out and there were trees and there were woods everywhere.
"I’ve flown this route hundreds of times. We were stopped. I reached over and opened the door. I didn’t know where my wife was.”

Mueller said that he was put in a golf cart and taken off the course. He was then driven in an ambulance to the Paoli Hospital.

Mueller said he suffered 10 broken bones and his wife suffered traumatic injuries.

He thanked the golfers, Beisty and Stanley, for helping him out of the plane. The couple’s two cats also were rescued.

“We are doing much better,” Mueller said. “Owen and Mike helped us. The club was great. I want to thank everyone.”

Beisty, a junior at the U.S. Naval Academy, said they called 911 and helped the two get out of the plane.

“It couldn’t have worked out better,” he said, socializing with the Muellers outside the Tredyffrin Township building.