Scott Walker survives a second air emergency

OCEAN SPRINGS -- It’s happened again.

Scott Walker had a second brush with death, in September, in a small private plane while on business. This time there was no crash and everyone walked away.

But for a few excruciating minutes it brought back a world of fear and anxiety for Walker, 32, the globe-trotting business developer from Ocean Springs who was crippled in March when a small private plane he was in crashed on take-off from the Ocean Springs Airport.

That crash broke his back. He’s gone through surgeries and physical therapy to walk again.

In September, he was in the back seat of a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron when an engine blew. He said he couldn’t believe it was happening again.

After all, he was still in physical therapy from the March crash.

Flying over the Gulf of Mexico near Alabama, he said he braced himself and thought, “Please don’t let this hurt.”

Walker was returning from a business trip to Tampa, Fla., with developer Gentry Williams and D’Iberville’s Al Gombos. They were learning how to set up a company to handle laundry for health-care companies and hospitals on the Coast.

The Beechcraft, which seats four, had been over the Gulf for about 100 miles, he said, and was descending as it approached Gulf Shores, Ala., when “all of a sudden the right engine just snapped.”

There was a loud knock and oil sprayed over the right side of the airplane, Walker said. The engine had thrown a rod and punctured the case or block, releasing the oil.

“I could tell the propeller was not normal,” he said.

He said there was general panic among the passengers. One of them had not flown in a small plane before.

But the pilot, with 31 years of experience, kept calm. He still had one engine. He called for an emergency landing at the airport in Gulf Shores.

As they came in, people on the ground reported seeing the aircraft trailing thick black smoke, Walker said. Fire trucks and an ambulance were called in for the landing. Everyone watched.

“It really scared me,” Walker said.

He said thoughts and feeling from the March crash into an Ocean Springs neighborhood washed over him. “I cried like a baby.”

But Mark Isham, the pilot, landed the plane smoothly amid the ruckus. Walker said he’s grateful for an experienced pilot -- and a plane with two engines.

Blue skies on the horizon

He told the story this week from the lobby of the Singing River Healthplex in Pascagoula, where he still spends three days a week regaining his ability to walk. He uses a cane and leg braces that help his feet work properly, but the injury hasn’t slowed him down much.