He could hear the people moaning, pleading for help. Mote recalls the first thing he saw was a bloody hand sticking out from the wreckage. Johnny Mote and his ragtag team were first on the crash site. Photo: Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader The Rescue Attempt That Had Heros And Looters Alike Headline from a local newspaper reporting the crash. He then assembled a convoy of trucks and four-wheelers to locate the crash site and rescue the survivors. The guys hit the dirt and yelling out with what they had left “Hey! I don’t know who you think we are but we were on a plane and the plane crashed out there on the other side of that cow pasture.” Mote instantly connected the dots to the sound he heard earlier and the men that lay before him. Pyle, Frank, and Peden were met with hostility when they finally came up to Mote. Mote hopped into his pick-up to get back to his house, told his wife to get back in the house, then proceeded to grab his gun and stand guard. The 22-year-old had been outside bailing hay in the twilight when he heard the crash in the distance, which he assumed was “a car skidding in gravel.” But after seeing helicopter searchlights, he started to assume it was a jailbreak instead. That farm belonged to a young dairy farmer named Johnny Mote. Shining from what seemed to be a small house on a dairy farm. A little after an hour of trudging through a creek – and at one point burrowing underneath a barbed wire fence – they found themselves staring at a small, dim light in the distance. The will to carry on was strong, however, Pyle being a US Marine, would live out the phrase “ Semper Fidelis” which means always faithful. Especially Artimus, who had three broken ribs and multiple large cuts. Tremendous physical pain overwhelmed the group as did mental exhaustion. At this point, for Artimus Pyle, Marc Frank, and Ken Peden, the only sensible thing left to do was to leave certain death at the crash site, for uncertainty in the swamp.Īs the three marched on, feet soaking wet from the water, all odds seemed stacked against the trio. Deceased people hanging from trees, the other survivors moaning for help of any kind, and completely surrounded by a black swamp whose canopy is blocking the only light that is trying so desperately to shine through. With the dust settled from a plane crash that would make a small Mississippi town famous, everything that surrounded the few conscious and able survivors were completely horrific and getting darker by the second. Photo: Pinterest Artimus Pyle, Marc Frank, And Ken Peden Go Searching For Help All reality had been broken and none of the surviving members would ever be the same – or view life the same again.Īrtimus Pyle, drummer for the band, stops for a quick picture while en route to the next show. Crying, praying, and counting the dead to see who they would never hug, play music with, and enjoy company with again. Marc Frank was beaten terribly and was also covered in lacerations and blood. Artimus Pyle emerged with several broken ribs, and bleeding everywhere you could. Powell’s nose had been nearly ripped from his face after crashing head first through a table. Laying on the ground, still alive for only a moment, to slowly bleed to death. Steve Gaines was killed instantly upon impact and his sister Cassie Gaines perished as well. He had been impaled by a part of the fuselage and it pushed through his body and projected out of his back. Dean Kilpatrick, the band’s manager, lay dead and covered in blood. Ronnie had died instantly upon impact, his head slamming into a tree. One of them being completely decapitated. The pilots were still in their seats, but were laying upside down in nearby trees. A tragic scene no person would ever wish to see or soon forget. The plane was simply not built well enough to even remotely handle the impact from the pine trees at roughly 90 mph. The cockpit, tail, and wings completely ripped apart and the remaining cab lay desolate, in the shape of an L. Suffocating the people on the bottom from the sheer weight. All of the seats were ripped from the frame of the plane, landing in the front section of the crash. The only thing left was a trail of debris and people. Marc Frank remembers seeing complete and total despair. The Guillsberg, Missippi, crash site of the Convair CV-240.
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