Man Stuck In Plane Survives After Crash

June 24, 2007 — -- Dennis Steinbock's nightmare scenario began as his plane started crashing. "I was just over 3,000 feet," the 52-year-old said. "Right away, you go to your emergency procedures and start looking immediately for a place to land."

The Oregon pilot and high school history teacher struggled to keep control as his plane fell from the sky and crashed into a dense Mississippi forest last week.

"The aircraft slid down and hit nose first and then flipped over on its back," Steinbock said. "I knew I had cuts on my legs and on my knees from the Plexiglas."

For 50 hours, Steinbock was pinned inside the plane with several broken bones, but in the Mississippi heat, his biggest problem would be running out of water.

"It rained Monday night, so some leaves and some sectional maps had gathered a fairly significant amount of water," he said. "I sucked on the leaves and chewed the maps up pretty much."

His other problem was the fact no one knew exactly where he was. An emergency beacon on the plane could be wrong by half a mile. On the second day, Steinbock could hear the whirr of search planes, but they couldn't see him.

As the days dragged on, he started to worry that he might not make it.

"By Wednesday morning, I thought there was a possibility, I was getting so dehydrated and I was totally exhausted," he said. "But the airplanes flying in — and knowing somebody was looking — I think really motivated me."

But just as doubts set in, he heard the roar of a helicopter. Steinbock's first words to his rescuers were right to the point.

"I just said I need water right away," he said. "So they said, 'I will get you water right away.' And they snuck a snorkel from a hydration package and that's when I started getting hydration going."

Steinbock broke both his legs and suffered from dehydration when he was found. Now, surrounded by his family while recovering in a hospital, Steinbock said he knows just how lucky he is.

"There were so many reasons for me to live," he said.