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Neosho, Mo. —
Kyle and Amanda Franklin, a husband and wife aerobatics team from Neosho, are still hospitalized in San Antonio, Texas, after suffering injuries when their stunt plane crashed at the Air Fiesta 2011 show in Brownsville, Texas, Saturday.
After hearing the news of the accident, Neosho Mayor Richard Davidson, who is also a pilot himself, got online to get as much detail as he could and actually watched the video of the Franklins’ accident.
“I think that Kyle did just an extraordinary job of keeping that airplane straight, level and giving his wife time to get back into the plane and ensure her chance of survival in a crash landing,” he said. “Anytime something like that happens, the skills of the pilot are the first things that are going to be relied upon. Kyle did an excellent job of keeping that plane controlled and landing it where he did. The fire that ensued was unfortunate and I hate to hear of the injuries that Kyle and Amanda suffered. I wish them the best. I hope that we see them back up in the skies of Neosho practicing very soon.”
Neosho Hugh Robinson Airport manager Billy Sallee, who has had a friendship with the Franklins for the last six years, said, “(I would like) for everybody to keep them in their thoughts and prayers. It is tragic for something like this to take place.”
They are high profile celebrities in the air show business, he added.
Amanda’s brother, Matt Younkin, who is also a pilot and who was at the show, sent a letter to Sallee about the accident.
“Let me first express on behalf of Amanda, Kyle, myself and both of our families so many thanks for all of your prayers and well wishes,” Younkin said. “We are still waiting for updates and it could be many hours, days, or weeks before we know exactly how the recovery process will play out between Amanda and Kyle. I can, however, report that Kyle was not injured and or burned as badly as reported earlier by the media and is expected to make a full and rapid recovery. I can also say that the updates we are receiving on Amanda are increasingly optimistic and, though she has a long road of recovery ahead of her, the doctors are giving us the impression that things are not as bad as first reported and her chances for a full recovery are getting better not worse. The first 24 hours will set the tone for the story ahead.
Kyle and Amanda Franklin, a husband and wife aerobatics team from Neosho, are still hospitalized in San Antonio, Texas, after suffering injuries when their stunt plane crashed at the Air Fiesta 2011 show in Brownsville, Texas, Saturday.
After hearing the news of the accident, Neosho Mayor Richard Davidson, who is also a pilot himself, got online to get as much detail as he could and actually watched the video of the Franklins’ accident.
“I think that Kyle did just an extraordinary job of keeping that airplane straight, level and giving his wife time to get back into the plane and ensure her chance of survival in a crash landing,” he said. “Anytime something like that happens, the skills of the pilot are the first things that are going to be relied upon. Kyle did an excellent job of keeping that plane controlled and landing it where he did. The fire that ensued was unfortunate and I hate to hear of the injuries that Kyle and Amanda suffered. I wish them the best. I hope that we see them back up in the skies of Neosho practicing very soon.”
Neosho Hugh Robinson Airport manager Billy Sallee, who has had a friendship with the Franklins for the last six years, said, “(I would like) for everybody to keep them in their thoughts and prayers. It is tragic for something like this to take place.”
They are high profile celebrities in the air show business, he added.
Amanda’s brother, Matt Younkin, who is also a pilot and who was at the show, sent a letter to Sallee about the accident.
“Let me first express on behalf of Amanda, Kyle, myself and both of our families so many thanks for all of your prayers and well wishes,” Younkin said. “We are still waiting for updates and it could be many hours, days, or weeks before we know exactly how the recovery process will play out between Amanda and Kyle. I can, however, report that Kyle was not injured and or burned as badly as reported earlier by the media and is expected to make a full and rapid recovery. I can also say that the updates we are receiving on Amanda are increasingly optimistic and, though she has a long road of recovery ahead of her, the doctors are giving us the impression that things are not as bad as first reported and her chances for a full recovery are getting better not worse. The first 24 hours will set the tone for the story ahead.
“I also have to extend a very sincere thanks to my brother-in-law, Kyle, who I strongly credit for the fact that my little sister is still with us. Having witnessed the accident and being one of the first on the scene, I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that he made no less than five quick decisions in the air and on the ground that gave her a second chance at life.”
Younkin stated in the letter that when the engine quit, Amanda was on the top wing in the rack. Kyle continued to fly the airplane in a straight and level fashion as long as he could to give Amanda every opportunity to unstrap and get into the front cockpit where she would have the best chance in the event of a hard landing.
“(Kyle) also resisted the tendency to turn for the pavement, which typically induces a fatal stall/spin situation,” Younkin added. “He avoided a landing in the pyro field, which could have proven to be fatal, and faced with the only other option of land in mesquite woods, Kyle landed into the wind drastically reducing the forward speed at impact. Upon reaching the scene, I noticed that he set the airplane down in the only Waco-sized piece of ground in that dense woods that didn’t have tall trees in it. Kyle sustained the majority of his burns trying to pull his wife from the wreckage and when his efforts produced no results, he stayed in the cockpit and transmitted a repeating distress call about the post impact fire that had started. I honestly believe this motivated the rapid responders to press through the brush and douse the airplane at a more rapid rate which meant the split-second difference that saved Amanda, who was still in the plane.
“The first responders on the scene did an excellent job of responding to the situation in a rapid manner,” he added. “Having a professional air boss teamed up with professional CFR personnel made a world of difference that could be the single most important factor that both Amanda and Kyle are still with us.”
The remainder of Saturday’s air show was canceled, but Sunday’s program went on as scheduled.
The couple’s fathers, Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin, were stunt pilots as well. The two were killed in a mid-air collision during a 2005 air show in Canada.
“We have such a unique story,” Amanda told the Daily News in 2010. “We both met at an air show – of course, our dads flew together – we started dating in 2004 at Langley Air Force Base and we traveled the circuit a lot. Then the accident happened with our fathers in 2005 and three months later, we got married. Then we started working with my brother (Matt Younkin) and things have just taken off.”
