Thought of the week: The Unimaginable Loss
Written by Murray McCandless
As a father, a grandfather and a pilot, I can’t get that tragic accident in Montana that happened last month off my mind. I have flown many times to Florida, and other places sometimes in a Piper Navajo Chieftan, with (11) on of us on board, all from one family, the family happened to be mine. We were legal, one was less than 2 yrs old. As I write I am not far from where this happened.
There was something about turning around during the flight, looking at all those lives, realizing they were dependant on two Lycoming 310 hp engines, and one heart beat, that was mine. Everybody would be so happy looking forward to a safe arrival in the Florida heat, whether it was in the hours of the night, early morning hours or mid day.
It would be unimaginable, as an absolutely stunned father and loving grandfather, Dr Bud Feldkamp III, took that cell phone call from his nephew advising him that an aircraft had gone down not far from Butte Montana, with the words ‘ I think it was our plane’. Bud and his wife turned away from the gate to that exclusive ski lodge in Big Sky Montana and headed for a dreaded dark sky at the edge of a cemetery. Words would fail to describe how Bud, his wife, and a surviving daughter must have felt as they stared in horror and disbelief at the charred wreckage, and a 20 ft crater created by the impact. Then there were the white plastic sheets covering the remains of their two loved daughters, their husbands and seven much loved grand children.
The six of them attended college together. They pursued graduate degrees at the same university, then all settled into medical professions and started families at around the same time. And on Sunday they were all sitting on the same private plane, with their seven young children, headed to a much-anticipated ski vacation at an exclusive resort.
I know the Pilatus 12, single engine turbine aircraft was numerically overloaded, but not necessarily over the weight limits. Felkamp and his daughters were listed as owners of the 2 million dollar aircraft. Mr. Felkam and his surviving family will never come to terms with such a tragedy.
Some reading this article know how hard it is to lose one family member, but that many at once, is staggering. Most remember a family reunion hay ride here in New Brunswick that turned tragic on a Thanksgiving weekend, a number of years ago. That has to live in the minds of family members to this day.
Job the man, whose story has a book in our Bible just before the Psalms, lost 10 children in one day! It says in chapter one concerning Job’s reaction to that catastrophic lost, he said ‘the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
Any tragedy gives rise to more questions than answers. We look at the pilot, a 65-year-old Bud Summerfield, a veteran air force captain, with thousands of hours experience, and in fact 2000 hrs in the Pilatus. Summerfield’s last communication with Salt Lake Center indicated no physical or mechanical problems, as he requested decent and a change in arrival airports.
Again we realize, the young, the old, the affluent, the poor, all are faced with the brevity of life. Personal life insurance policies are of little comfort. One fact is a comfort, children under the age of accountability were in Heaven, before the senior Feldkamp’s got the news. This could only be a comfort to believer that knows what the Bible teaches.
We may live very simple lives in comparison to the Feldkamps, but the importance of being spiritually ready for the unexpected and unavoidable, can not be over stressed. A farmer by the name of Amos, whose book bears his name in the Old Testament said ‘Prepare to meet thy God.’ Amos 4:12
Murray A. McCandless 2070 Route 121 Norton NB E5T 1E9 mmccand@nbnet.nb.ca