News

Three strangers who literally dropped out of the air at one Donley County couple’s home recently ended up staying two days and becoming good friends.

Bill and Betty Ann Sansing had been to a funeral Sunday afternoon, January 9, when they returned to their ranch home north of Clarendon. As they drove up to the house, they came upon a site they never would have expected – a helicopter had landed by their barn.

“We didn’t know what to think,” Betty Ann Sansing recalled. “We just wondered, ‘Is this for real?’”

Just minutes earlier, Robert Myers, along with his father, Jack, and his son, Haden, had been flying in the four-seat Robertson R44 helicopter, going home to Skiatook, northwest of Tulsa, Okla., after visiting relatives in Clovis, New Mexico.

“We thought we could make it to Watonga (Okla.), but we ran into fog,” Robert said.
With no windshield wipers and facing freezing precipitation, Myers sat the copter down on what he would later find out was the southern part of the Sansings’ land.

“We just gathered hands and prayed for God to get us somewhere safe,” Robert said.

It was a prayer that was answered when they lifted off and flew just a little ways before they saw the Sansing’s barn. Robert landed again, and they noticed the ranch house several yards away. He went to the door, but no one was home. But within just a few minutes of his returning to the helicopter, the bewildered Sansings drove up.

“He came to the car and told us their situation,” Betty Ann said, “so we invited them inside so we could call the weather radar up on the computer.”
The flying conditions showed no signs of improving, so the Sansings allowed the Myers family to stow the helicopter in their barn and then put them up in a guest room with two king beds.

“We knew right away they were good folks,” Betty Ann said. “We didn’t have any hesitation to let them stay.”

“They took us in just like we were family,” Jack Myers said. “We helped [Bill] feed his cattle, and then helped him break ice the next day.”

Monday morning they checked the weather again. It was clear locally, but they would run into precipitation again before they could get home, so it was decided they would stay another night.

“Mondays are usually pretty quiet and boring around our house,” Betty Ann said. “But that day the time flew by.”

The families discovered they had a lot in common, and they spent the day visiting and learning more about each other. Robert had been in contact with friends back home, and at one point a deacon from his church sent him a text message: “There is a heavenly host watching over you.” Certainly, the Myers family thought their earthly hosts were heaven sent.

By the time the Myers men lifted off last Tuesday morning, it was apparent that the Sansings had adopted some new members into their family.

“We’re expecting a visit this spring,” said Betty Ann, and Robert agreed that was definitely going to happen.

“I’m going to come back and bring my whole family,” he said before his crew boarded their helicopter, took off to the south, banked back to the northeast, and flew over their new friends’ home on their way back to Oklahoma.

An airplane piloted by Clarendon City Administrator Lambert Little crash landed about one mile east of the Smiley Johnson Municipal Airport Sunday night, January 16.

Little, age 54, survived the crash and was extricated from his 1959 Cessna fixed wing single engine plane by the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department. He was transported by Associated Ambulance Authority to Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo where he was in stable condition. The Texas Wing of the Civil Air Patrol reported that Little was being treated for an apparent broken leg.

Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn said his office was contacted at 10:10 p.m. by the Lockhead-Martin Flight Center and asked to check the airport for Little’s overdue plane. The area was experiencing dense fog at the time, and visibility was down to about 50 yards, the sheriff said.

Deputies found no plane at the airport, and Little’s personal vehicle was still in his hanger. The Federal Aviation Administration was contacted along with cell phone companies, and it was discovered that Little’s cell phone was pinging off a tower northeast of Clarendon near FM 1260.
The sheriff’s office had neighboring counties check their airports and requested the Department of Public Safety in Amarillo and Donley County Commissioner Andy Wheatly bring their helicopters to assist with a search as soon as the fog lifted.

The Texas Wing of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) was notified of the overdue aircraft by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) at approximately 12:30 a.m.  Incident Commander, LtCol Rick Woolfolk said a ground team from Amarillo led by Major James Dabney, arrived in the area of the Smiley Johnson Airport at about 5:30 a.m. 

At about 7:57 Monday morning, Donley County resident Daniel Ford discovered the wreckage of Little’s plane about 30 yards off County Road T and notified authorities.

Emergency personnel found the plane had flipped on its top, but Little was conscious and alert and in good spirits.

Rescuers also were able to find the small blind dog that had accompanied the pilot on the flight and took him to a shelter until a caretaker could arrive.