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From Fayetville Online (9/10/99)
Helicopter crash victim says pocket knife saved his life
By James Locklear
Staff writer
ROWLAND -- Glenn Locklear wanted a better view of the rock formation he was videotaping, so he asked the helicopter pilot to make one more pass.
The pilot and a passenger Locklear had befriended moments before takeoff died in the crash. Locklear, who lives on Midway Road near Pembroke, was shaken up but sustained no life-threatening injuries.
He was in South Dakota attending the annual Sturgis Harley Davidson motorcycle rally with friends. He says the last thing he remembers was videotaping the Needles Eye rock formation, a popular tourist attraction in South Dakotas Custer State Park.
I was on a side door and couldnt get a good view, so I asked the pilot to turn around, said Locklear, who is 42. I heard someone holler, Were going down. I looked and saw we were crashing into the trees. I woke up, and my legs were burning.
The 1989 Bell 206 B 3 Jet Ranger helicopter was flying about 50-feet high when it crashed about 5:45 p.m. It landed on its left side in a rugged, 30-foot ravine, about 50 yards off South Dakota Highway 87. Locklear was on the left side of the chopper, dangling sideways, trapped in his safety harness.
Bleeding heavily from the mouth and suffering from second-degree burns, he pulled out a small pocketknife and tried to cut himself loose. One of the men he had met at the helicopter pad came to the chopper screaming, trying to help his dead friend. Locklear handed him the small Treebrand knife and begged him to cut him free.
When I was burning, I thought it was on fire, he said. I was scared it was fixin to blow up. I could see the seatbelt, but I couldnt get out. The guy didnt remember cutting me out. He wound up with the knife the next morning in the hospital. He had it in his back pocket. I believe if it hadnt been for that knife, I wouldnt have made it.
The black handled, 3-inch knife Locklear bought six weeks earlier from a Rockingham flea market now sits on a glass-encased shelf in his living room next to a model Harley Davidson, a reminder of his brief brush with death.
Helicopter crash victim says pocket knife saved his life
By James Locklear
Staff writer
ROWLAND -- Glenn Locklear wanted a better view of the rock formation he was videotaping, so he asked the helicopter pilot to make one more pass.
The pilot and a passenger Locklear had befriended moments before takeoff died in the crash. Locklear, who lives on Midway Road near Pembroke, was shaken up but sustained no life-threatening injuries.
He was in South Dakota attending the annual Sturgis Harley Davidson motorcycle rally with friends. He says the last thing he remembers was videotaping the Needles Eye rock formation, a popular tourist attraction in South Dakotas Custer State Park.
I was on a side door and couldnt get a good view, so I asked the pilot to turn around, said Locklear, who is 42. I heard someone holler, Were going down. I looked and saw we were crashing into the trees. I woke up, and my legs were burning.
The 1989 Bell 206 B 3 Jet Ranger helicopter was flying about 50-feet high when it crashed about 5:45 p.m. It landed on its left side in a rugged, 30-foot ravine, about 50 yards off South Dakota Highway 87. Locklear was on the left side of the chopper, dangling sideways, trapped in his safety harness.
Bleeding heavily from the mouth and suffering from second-degree burns, he pulled out a small pocketknife and tried to cut himself loose. One of the men he had met at the helicopter pad came to the chopper screaming, trying to help his dead friend. Locklear handed him the small Treebrand knife and begged him to cut him free.
When I was burning, I thought it was on fire, he said. I was scared it was fixin to blow up. I could see the seatbelt, but I couldnt get out. The guy didnt remember cutting me out. He wound up with the knife the next morning in the hospital. He had it in his back pocket. I believe if it hadnt been for that knife, I wouldnt have made it.
The black handled, 3-inch knife Locklear bought six weeks earlier from a Rockingham flea market now sits on a glass-encased shelf in his living room next to a model Harley Davidson, a reminder of his brief brush with death.
