Every week The Salem News features past headlines in the Yesteryears feature of the Dent County Life section. Editing the Yesteryears can be equal parts interesting and laborious at times, but every once in a while a story from The Salem News stacks demands more than the usual one line summary. Such is the case concerning Frankie Schwartz crash landing his yellow 310 Cessna airplane at the Salem Airport 30 years ago today, Sept. 15, 1985.
Thirty years ago was a Sunday, and the sky was majestic and clear. The occasional puffy white clouds loomed as no threat and provided only wondrous views to those exploring the wild blue yonder.
“It was a beautiful day,” Schwartz remembers. “There were no weather troubles at all. It was perfect flying conditions.”
Schwartz’s big plans were to fly himself and three guests 40 miles north to Vichy, where they would spend the day enjoying Ozarks Extravaganza 85, a now defunct festival that regularly featured music, carnival rides and other revelries.
In the plane with Schwartz were Noel Wisdom as well as Denny Null and his wife, Terri.
Schwartz promised his passengers he could make the trip to Vichy in about 10 minutes.
“Once this baby gets up there it can really go,” Schwartz says. “Before I know anything I’m half way to St. Louis.”
You go by Frankie’s rules on Frankie’s plane
Schwartz remembers the flight went smooth until he made his descent to the Vichy Airport.
“I was talking, naturally, too much and before I knew it we were over the Vichy Airport, so I had to lose a lot of altitude quick,” Schwartz says. “So I dropped my landing gear and turned the airplane right at about 175 miles per hour, and then I heard something go BANG! So I thought, uh oh, this is not going to be good. You never want to hear a big loud bang.”
A strong wind shear broke his landing gear during the turn, which wouldn’t allow it to lock into place. Schwartz did what he could to get the equipment to function, but none of his old tricks worked. Realizing the worst, he knew the only other option was to crash land his plane with a belly landing maneuver.
“It isn’t enough to say I was nervous with the stress I was under,” Schwartz says. “I had three people with me, and their lives were in my hands.”
The only thing Schwartz now had total control over was where this crash landing would take place. He resolved that if he were going to come down, it would be on his home field.
Thirty years ago The Salem News reported Schwartz turned his plane around because he didn’t want to leave his Cessna disabled so far away from home. Looking back today, however, Schwartz is now willing to add the Federal Aviation Administration as another deciding factor.
“If I am going to fight the federal government, I am going to do it on my own turf, and I always do,” Schwartz says.
Upon taking the heading south, Schwartz alerted the Salem authorities via a telephone in his plane.
Among those who took the call was Kermit Allen, then serving as the chief of Salem’s fire department.
“When we first heard about the situation we thought, well, it looks like Frankie is at it again,” Allen says.
Word spread fast as it typically does in small towns, and news of Schwartz’s impending plunge to earth soon hit the airwaves as local citizen Beatrice Voorhees called into KSMO Radio requesting prayers.
Tantalized by a fresh wave of heavenly pleas, a cavalcade of curious onlookers playing hooky from church made their way to the Salem airport to join the emergency responders.
“The fire department came out and, about, oh, I’d say half of Salem,” Schwartz says. “I think the whole world knew I was in trouble. When I’m involved the stories usually get bigger than the situation really is, but not always. Some of the stores they tell about me are true.”
Frankie Schwartz, standing third from left, was unscratched after his crash landing as evidenced by this photo.
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Once there, Schwartz lived up to the hype by putting on quite a show for his audience.
“He needed to burn off all his fuel before the landing,” Allen says. “You don’t want to do a belly landing with a full tank of gas. So Frankie circled the airport, repeatedly climbing and descending in elevation because that is the quickest way to burn off that excess fuel.”
Schwartz also remembers the air show practically.
“I knew I couldn’t put it down with 130 gallons of fuel in four fuel tanks,” Schwartz says. “It stood a pretty good chance of blowing up, and I’ve done had one blow up on me before and I didn’t need another one, so I proceeded to burn off the fuel by circling the airport and buzzing around town.”
During the circling, Schwartz remembers having to fend off at least one potential mutiny within the plane.
“Noel was up here with me and he was rattling the jaw much more than Denny and his wife,” Schwartz says. “He kept trying to tell me to put it down in the lake, and I’d say, ‘No I’m not putting it down at the lake, I’m putting it down at the airport. Don’t worry I’ll get it down.’”
After more than an hour, and one aborted pass at the airport, Schwartz had only enough fuel left for one last try. It was then he turned to his passengers and told them to get ready.
“Don’t stop to help anybody else, just get yourself away from the plane,” he was reported to have said. “I don’t want any suggestions. I run a dictatorship in my plane, not a democracy, you don’t get to vote. Just do exactly what I tell you to do.”
Frankie Schwartz was quick to move his disabled plane after his crash landing to thwart the prying eyes of the Federal Aviation Administration.
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‘I could feel the grass hitting the belly of the plane’
At 10:45 a.m. Schwartz began his southbound approach and started shutdown procedures on the aircraft. All the electronic instruments and gauges had to be turned off so as to not spark a fire if a fuel tank ruptured. Schwartz, his 310 and its three passengers, were now gliding down through the air.
“We had our fire truck out there and were ready for him,” Allen says. “But we didn’t want to see anyone get killed. Frankie agreed that the best thing to do was land in the tall grass next to the field, which thankfully hadn’t been mowed.”
Schwartz hit the ground just before 11 a.m.
Terri Null related the experience at the time to The Salem News.
“I could feel the grass hitting the belly of the plane and hear it brushing by as we were floating into land,” she said. “I did exactly as he told me to do. I got out of the plane and ran.”
Allen said it was the best emergency landing he ever saw.
“He tipped that nose up and slid right into that grass for a couple hundred feet,” he remembers. “If you and I were the greatest of pilots we could not have landed it as good as Frankie did.”
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Schwartz today claims none of the credit and insists the landing was the result of divine intervention.
“The truth is I should not be here,” Schwartz says. “I got a reprieve on my airplane crashes thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ and his protecting guardian angel.”
Allen says he didn’t see an angel, but agrees the landing was seemingly heaven sent.
“It was a miracle, I guess,” Allen says. “Anytime you walk away from a plane crash it’s a miracle, and there’s nobody in the country who has crash landed as many planes and walked away unscratched as Frankie. I know he has crashed three planes, which we know about.”
As to more earthly concerns, Schwartz was prepared for them, too.
“Frankie brought out some forklifts and had that plane moved before the FAA even heard about it,” Allen remembers.
“I certainly did,” Schwartz says. “I brought two of my homemade forklifts out, and we dragged it into my hanger and fixed it right up. But here they (the FAA) call wanting to know about the belly landing, and I had a few thousand words to say to them. I’d just spent $29,500 in attorney’s fees and depositions for the wreck I had at the Vichy Airport for the plane that burnt. They talked to me like I was a dog, and I let these guys know you come on down boys, I want two of you, one of you is not enough. I’m going to get $29,000 out of your head even if it takes me all day and a big two by four, I’m going to get it. You can take it to federal court, and you’re going to win, but brother you’re going in with some bumps on you. Then they said Mr. Schwartz, Mr. Schwartz, let me talk, we won’t be down to see you. And that was the end of that.”
