Pilot Died of Heart Attack

W I N T E R H A V E N, F l a., Aug. 8 -- A family’s pilot who collapsed at the controls of a single-engine plane died of a heart attack, an autopsy revealed.

With Kristopher Warren Pearce passed out next to him, HenryGeorge Anhalt took control of the plane, put out a mayday call andprayed. Thirty minutes later, the father landed the six-seataircraft safely with help from a flight instructor.

After Saturday’s landing at Winter Haven Airport, Pearce wastreated by emergency personnel then taken to a hospital, where hewas later pronounced dead.

An autopsy conducted Monday showed Pearce, 36, of Haines City,suffered from coronary artery atherosclerosis, said Polk CountyMedical Examiner Stephen Nelson.

Anhalt, who had never piloted a plane before, was guided to theairport by pilot Dan McCullough, who told him how to work theplane’s controls.

McCullough, a part-time flight instructor from Winter Haven,found Anhalt while helping another pilot with instrument landingmaneuvers at a Lakeland airport.

Hard Landing“I didn’t do anything special,” said Anhalt, 33, a technicianat the Universal Studios theme park. “I’ve done what anyone elsewould’ve done.”

The plane struck the runway hard, bounced up then touched downagain, before sharply turning onto a grassy median and coming to afull stop on an adjacent runway, police said.

No one else on the plane was hurt. The plane sustained minimaldamage, police said.

“It wasn’t until we got on the ground and I realize what we’vebeen through that I started shaking and shaking,” said Anhalt’swife, Becky, 33, who was in the passenger seats with the couple’ssons Jeremiah, 11; Jacob, 7, and Joseph, 2.

The Anhalts were returning from a church retreat in the Bahamas,where they had taught vacation Bible school. The trip was organizedby their church, the Lighthouse World Outreach in Davenport.

Pearce, chairman of the Northridge Christian Academy schoolboard, had on several occasions volunteered to take church membersto the Bahamas in his Piper.