I left the airport at 5:30pm Sunday, drove to northern edge of Memphis before
stopping for the night then finished the trip arriving home Monday evening.
While still in route home, my mother in law called me just after I had left
Memphis TN Monday morning, she asked me if my youngest son was OK. I had no
idea what she was talking about. She was watching Fox news when they reported
the Rockwall Heath High school Swim team bus had crashed.(I was panicked
initially) I called my wife, who is a school teacher, she said my son was fine,
since she knew he was OK she decided not to panic anyone else, like me for
instance. The story according to my son, the school bus traveling about 55mph
down a farm market road after leaving the new aquatic center in route to his
school when it suddenly took an immediate right hand turn off the road, in the
process it leaned like it was going to turn over but it didn't, it was bouncing
through the ditch and kids were
bouncing all over the bus, he said it then suddenly got smooth and calm (that
was because the whole bus went air-born, it had vaulted up and off of the side
of a large pond bank) and when it came crashing down out into the pond nose
first, the windshield exploded back into the bus along with thousands of
gallons of water. My son said he had braced himself between his seat and the
one in front of himself. According to him one girl was up against the top of
the bus as she flew past him and he said others flew forward as well. Lots of
other stuff in the bus flew forward past him also. He said girls were just
screaming and crying once the bus came to a stop, then one young man who plans
to be a Navy seal started screaming at them to shut up and get out of the bus.
Kids were diving out of the windows and swimming to shore. Lots of cuts
bruises, broken fingers etc but no life threatening injuries except the driver
who had a heart attack, which caused all of
this. I have no idea what his condition is as I write this. Now I can say, at
least the bus with the swimming team aboard was the correct bus to end up out
in the middle of a pond if a bus load of kids had to be there. LOL
The one part I thought was really funny. When my son went to his first class he
was kinda dirty I guess. One of the kids in his class asked him what is wrong,
my son said what do you mean. The kid said, you are not clean and tidy like you
usually are. My son said that is because my bus went flying into a pond and I
had to swim to shore. The kid said Right! whatever and turned away. My son said
the same thing happened later in another class. All of the rest of the kids who
were on the bus, parents had picked them up and taken them home, so no one knew
about the drama. My kid was the only one in school today that had been on the
pond bus because his daddy went to the KR Gathering and was still driving home
and his mommy had to take care of the heathens at her school, so no one was
available to pick my son up.
Sorry to elaborate but I know other members have kids that ride school buses as
well.
The Gathering was fun except the crashes on Thursday put a real damper on
things that evening. I am not sure if someone else mentioned it but both pilots
were lucky to have the air ambulance handy there on the airport. Especially the
pilot of the second KR to go down short of the airport was unfortunate and very
fortunate at the same time. The careflight helicopter that is stationed at the
Mt Vernon airport had just lifted off on its way to take a patient from one
hospital to another or something to that order when the pilot heard the KR
pilot make the transmission that he was not going to make it to the airport.
The pilot and staff in the helicopter spotted the KR, watched him go down, they
immediately landed beside the wreckage, removed him and immediately
flew/transported him to a hospital. I thought that was an amazing coincidence
and lucky for the pilot. The KR planes that came in all looked good and the
pilots spent a lot of time explaining
things to KR lookers and builders as they usually do. I enjoyed spending time
with all of you who came and I am thankful for everyone making it home safely
and also I am thankful to know the two injured KR pilots are in good hands
right now. Many thanks to Larry Flesner for all of his hard work hosting the
Gatherings in Mt Vernon and also thanks to Chris the airport manager for all of
his hard work and efforts to make sure we all are happy and taken care of. I
just can't imagine a better airport manager than Chris.
Larry H.
