1st-person video shows small plane crash from inside cockpit
BOISE, Idaho - Imagine living through a plane crash and having the video that captured it all.
A local man shared his story this week with KBOI-TV, which is KOMO's sister station in Boise, after he and three others walked away from a single-engine plane crash in the Idaho wilderness.
The area is known as the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness and it almost lived up to its name for four men on June 30.
Leslie Gropp, 70, was taking his son, Tol, who lives in the Treasure Valley, and two friends on a hiking trip in the mountains.
They were taking off from Bruce Meadows Airport in Stanley, where they had landed earlier in the day.
"As we took off I knew that the take-off took a little longer than normal," Tol says. "But the runway was so long that once we got up in the air I wasn't concerned about it."
But the 1947 Stinson 108 four-seater was struggling to gain altitude.
"To be honest, I wasn't concerned until, I still felt even as I saw come into the trees, I thought my dad would pull us out of it and that we'd be OK."
Gropp believes warming temperatures caused an increase in density, making it more difficult for the plane to get adequate lift. He says the plane then hit an air pocket that pushed them down into the trees.
The entire gripping episode was caught by two Gopro cameras that were rolling inside the cockpit at the time of the take-off and crash. The video is posted below.
"It happened so fast, that I remember hitting the trees, and it sounded like rapid fire. Gunfire, it sounded like, but then we were all upside down, seatbelted in, and you can hear in the video my dad asking if everyone is all right."
Tol's father, Leslie, the pilot, suffered the worst of the injuries, including a broken jaw in three places and a broken cheekbone. But Tol believes his father's years of flying experience is why all four men are alive today.
"I honestly believe my dad saved our lives by the way he continued to fly the plane through the trees and making sure he didn't give up or try and pull out of it too hard."
Doctors say Leslie Gropp will make a full recovery. All of the others on the plane sustained only minor, superficial injuries.
After the crash, two campers rushed to the site within about 15 to 20 minutes, says one of the passengers who uploaded the crash video to YouTube. The campers then went for help and found a retired paramedic and firefighter who came to the aid of the crash victims.
About an hour after that a crew of firefighters were driving through the area and somebody flagged them down. The fire crew cut down trees so a life flight helicopter could land.
"We really appreciated everyone's help and effort. We feel very blessed to have had such great people respond so quickly," says the uploader.
Gropp says he hasn't been on any kind of plane since the accident, but hasn't ruled out future flights.
Although he's not sure his next destination will be the Idaho backcountry.
Read the entire NTSB preliminary report on the crash »
The entire video is posted below.
WARNING - Some of the content is graphic in nature.
A local man shared his story this week with KBOI-TV, which is KOMO's sister station in Boise, after he and three others walked away from a single-engine plane crash in the Idaho wilderness.
The area is known as the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness and it almost lived up to its name for four men on June 30.
Leslie Gropp, 70, was taking his son, Tol, who lives in the Treasure Valley, and two friends on a hiking trip in the mountains.
They were taking off from Bruce Meadows Airport in Stanley, where they had landed earlier in the day.
"As we took off I knew that the take-off took a little longer than normal," Tol says. "But the runway was so long that once we got up in the air I wasn't concerned about it."
But the 1947 Stinson 108 four-seater was struggling to gain altitude.
"To be honest, I wasn't concerned until, I still felt even as I saw come into the trees, I thought my dad would pull us out of it and that we'd be OK."
Gropp believes warming temperatures caused an increase in density, making it more difficult for the plane to get adequate lift. He says the plane then hit an air pocket that pushed them down into the trees.
The entire gripping episode was caught by two Gopro cameras that were rolling inside the cockpit at the time of the take-off and crash. The video is posted below.
"It happened so fast, that I remember hitting the trees, and it sounded like rapid fire. Gunfire, it sounded like, but then we were all upside down, seatbelted in, and you can hear in the video my dad asking if everyone is all right."
Tol's father, Leslie, the pilot, suffered the worst of the injuries, including a broken jaw in three places and a broken cheekbone. But Tol believes his father's years of flying experience is why all four men are alive today.
"I honestly believe my dad saved our lives by the way he continued to fly the plane through the trees and making sure he didn't give up or try and pull out of it too hard."
Doctors say Leslie Gropp will make a full recovery. All of the others on the plane sustained only minor, superficial injuries.
After the crash, two campers rushed to the site within about 15 to 20 minutes, says one of the passengers who uploaded the crash video to YouTube. The campers then went for help and found a retired paramedic and firefighter who came to the aid of the crash victims.
About an hour after that a crew of firefighters were driving through the area and somebody flagged them down. The fire crew cut down trees so a life flight helicopter could land.
"We really appreciated everyone's help and effort. We feel very blessed to have had such great people respond so quickly," says the uploader.
Gropp says he hasn't been on any kind of plane since the accident, but hasn't ruled out future flights.
Although he's not sure his next destination will be the Idaho backcountry.
Read the entire NTSB preliminary report on the crash »
The entire video is posted below.
WARNING - Some of the content is graphic in nature.
Wow. What a situation to be in...flying along, filming the countryside and then the trees start getting closer as the plane dips, then bam, into the trees. Â
Â
I might be wrong but the engine sounded like it was sputtering a bit.
Â
Amazing that no one was killed, especially after the way the plane folded up. GAD.
Glad they all survived. Reviewing the video, there is several opportunities to make an emergency landing. Knowing when to say uncle can save your life.
Pedal faster.
Old flyer's adage: "Any landing you can walk away from is a good one".
 @Glassman I get your point but that pilot sure didn't look like he was doing much walking away to me.
The son believes his dad saved their lives by the way he piloted, but I would argue that a good pilot would have known when they had too much weight for the aircraft. He should have aborted when he had trouble getting off the ground to begin with.
Probably didn't help that he had one wheel in the grass for most of the take off run.
 @Jeffrey The impact of the grass on roll out distance would not have made a noticeable difference.
Just because an old plane has 4 seats does not mean it can carry such weight. Big mistake. Lucky they're alive.Â
That guy's reaction at around 4:50 says it all. Â He obviously knows how lucky they are to be alive, though no doubt it was terrifying. Â Glad they're all OK.
"Gropp believes warming temperatures caused an increase in density, making it more difficult for the plane to get adequate lift"    Â
This is incorrect, the warming temperatures caused an increase in Density Altitude, not density. The density would actually go down with increased temperatures.
 @Guy1 I caught that too and was going to comment but you beat me to it. Most likely it was a mistake on behalf of the reporter not getting there is a difference.  That Density and Density Altitude is not the same thing.
Luck was definitely on their side. Any report on the make/model of the plane?
 @Shelly We have updated our story - it was a 1947 Stinson 108 four-seater.
It was a Cessna 170B.
Â
Damn lucky is right!  I'm a low-time student pilot and even I could see there was some poor decision making on the pilot's part.  First off they were flying on a hot day at a field that was thousands of feet above sea level.  High density altitude was a major factor (increased temps will cause a plane to act like it's thousands of feet higher than it really is which means decreased air density, severely inhibiting lift and power) along with what I can assume was an overweight aircraft.  Bad, bad combo.  I am very happy to hear they all survived but the actions and decision making of that pilot put all of their lives unnecessarily at risk.
 @Aros Your assessment is spot on. High temps, high altitude, heavy load.
 @wsmith_84 well at least he flew it straight ahead. That's likely the thing that saved them. Search on Idaho in the NTSB aviation accident database & you find a great many density altitude accidents just like this.
Holy cow, these guys are so damn lucky. Glad they made it ok
Wow - these guys are lucky to be alive. I'm glad that the outcome was positive!
Â
Great story and footage!