Lee Taylor of Diamondhead, Mississippi, sent in these two photos, with the story behind them: “I had gone out to take pictures of what was going to be a beautiful sunset. After I got there, a good friend took off in his Stearman to see the sunset from the air. As he returned and started his approach to the airport, I just happened to be in exactly the right place and took a whole series as he turned from base to final. The sunset picture was the second to the last of that series.”
“He was turning final to land on the runway and went behind some trees where I couldn’t see his touchdown. Shortly after that, I heard his engine briefly roar, then back off. I didn’t think anything of it, thinking he had probably made a last-second correction. I went rushing over to greet him at his hangar after landing to show him the magnificent picture I had taken of him, and his wife told me he had some kind of incident on the taxiway. I rushed out onto the airport, and took the next picture. Ten seconds after I took this sunset picture, he hit a 97-pound wild pig right exactly at touchdown. He never saw it, just a brief blur before the impact.”
“The pig broke the scissors on the one wheel, throwing him out of control. He left the runway in a hard swerve, and dropped all the way into a deep drainage ditch, which broke the opposite gear scissors, and threw him into a violent flip upside down.
“The roar I had heard was him trying a last-second attempt to get to the taxiway. He almost made it.”
“The plane was heavily damaged, but both pilots got out without injury. Stearmans are well known for protecting the passengers.”
“The plane has been totalled, and turned over to the insurance company. My friend, after 30 years of owning this magnificent bird, felt he just couldn’t afford the repairs, even after the insurance payment.”
“This was the only Stearman radial engine, that in all the years I have been around it, has never had one drop of oil leak from it. That was how perfect this plane was kept.”
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All photos sent in for Picture of the Day are also considered for our new Page 4 photo feature in the print issue of General Aviation News, as well as A Year in Pictures in the December issues.