AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 32
PILOT BRIEFING
PEOPLE
|
Closing a
chapter
Pilot finds his grandfather's crash site
B Y J I L L W. TA L L M A N
ON JULY 29, 1968, INVESTIGATORS with
the Rio Blanco County Sheriff's Office in
Rangely, Colorado, drove south of town to
the scene of a fatal airplane crash. Spotted
a day earlier by a Civil Air Patrol pilot, the
wrecked Cessna 182 and its pilot, Ralph
Thurston, lay at the bottom of a ridge at
Douglas Pass.
Thurston, a geologist, was flying from
Lander, Wyoming, to Blanding, Utah, when
he struck the ridge line. An active pilot who
had owned several aircraft, the 53-year-old
had flown frequently for business and was
most likely en route to a uranium mill that
he owned in Blanding.
Thurston's grandson, Eric, was 1-yearold at the time. His father, Jim Thurston
(in photo), never talked about the accident.
"There were strained family relations,"
Eric Thurston said. "There was never a
funeral, and never closure to his life."
Thurston thought about his grandfather often. In 2009-now working in the
software industry-he began researching the accident. Emails to the Rio Blanco
County Sheriff's Office resulted in a bounty
of information: the accident report, a death
certificate; handwritten notes by the investigators, topographical maps, and Polaroids
of the crash scene. The accident report
indicated that Ralph Thurston "was known
to get sleepy while flying or driving. Also
supposedly had lung cancer."
"The next morning, I went to the flight
school and I said, 'I'm going to learn to
fly,'" Thurston said. He'd wanted to take
lessons but was hesitant. He'd often imagined his grandfather's accident as a scene
in which the airplane flew into a granite
wall and exploded into flames. When he
32 | AOPA PILOT November 2014
Using Google
Earth overlaying
the original
topographical
maps, they
found the
spot-and
a surprise.
The Cessna
182 was still
there-mostly.
learned the facts, Thurston was able to set aside his
qualms. He now is an instrument-rated pilot with
about 200 hours.
Researching the accident brought painful memories to the surface for Jim Thurston, but also good
ones. He began to tell Eric stories: about how Ralph
and Jim would fly a criss-cross pattern over the Black
Hills of Wyoming with a Geiger counter on board in
search of uranium, and found it. How Ralph would fly
over the family home in Lando, "rev the engine and
tip the wings," and that was a signal for someone to
come pick him up at the airport.
In 2012, father and son visited the crash site.
Using Google Earth overlaying the original topographical maps, they found the spot-and a surprise.
The Cessna 182 was still there, mostly. "Everything
is there except the tail and engine," Eric Thurston
said. They laid down a small grave marker that overlooks the vistas and held a memorial service for
Ralph Thurston. His grandson brought home a rusted
tachometer.
"Getting there, and seeing the airplane and the
wreckage was emotional and very healing," Eric
Thurston said. "It's brought us closer together."
Perhaps just as important, Ralph and Jim Thurston
"finally got that closure."
EMAIL jill.tallman@aopa.org
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014
Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - Cover1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - Cover2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 4
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 5
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 6
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 7
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 8
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 9
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 31
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 32
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 33
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 34
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - CSC-1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - CSC-2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - R-1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - R-2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - R-3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - R-4
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 57
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 58
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 59
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 60
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 61
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 62
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - Cover3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - Cover4
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