Radio and cable host Ed Schultz came through a close call on Sunday after his Cessna 206 blew a cylinder while he was flying home from his fishing lodge in Canada, forcing Schultz to land on an abandoned airstrip in the Canadian wilderness.
Schultz told his radio listeners about the incident at the end of his three-hour radio show yesterday while interviewing frequent guest and sponsor Mark Graff, president of a company called Bio Green Clean that sells cleaning products. (audio)
SCHULTZ: Mark Graff, I have something to clean.
GRAFF: And what is it?
SCHULTZ: My Cessna 206.GRAFF: OK, well get started, buddy.
SCHULTZ: Well, I can't, it's up in the Canadian wilderness. Have I got a story for you.
GRAFF: Go ahead.
SCHULTZ: So we're coming home on Sunday, a little weekend of fishing, right?
GRAFF: Hmm hmm.
SCHULTZ: We're at 3,500 feet. (makes sound like engine conking out) We lost cylinder number four.
GRAFF: Well, that's time to find religion right there, boy.
SCHULTZ: My faith was in Bio Green Clean, only if I could get this son of a gun on the ground. And I tell you what, we're over terrain that ain't good. But I'll be doggone, talking to some folks on the radio, I did a mayday, I got a hold of a buddy of mine who just happened to be on the radio, Sean Jackson (sp?). He directed me to an airstrip, an old abandoned airstrip in Manitoba. But for about 10 minutes, that aircraft was running on five cylinders. And we were lucky to get her down, case closed, everything fine, you know, didn't land on a highway, didn't stick it in a tree, nobody hurt, aircraft fine, everything else.
But let me tell you something, when that number four cylinder went and we had to put the baby down, it had oil all over it! So we're stuck out in the Canadian wilderness and I'm thinking, well now what are we going to do? 'Course I carry a satellite phone with me wherever I go 'cause you never know what the heck's going to happen and lo and behold it did happen.
And so when you go through something like that, your life flashes in front of you and Wendy (Schultz's wife) was in the back seat, here come the tears and then here come the prayers and she's in good with the Lord, so doggone it, we got a safe landing, I love that.
But anyway, we got on the ground, you start talking about, well, what are we gonna, you know, you debrief the whole thing, right?
GRAFF: Well, I'll tell you, you need ...SCHULTZ: And then I said, honey, look at this?! Look at, holy smokes, well Bio Green Clean's going to take care of that and we all started laughing. (laughs) So, I got a job to do. It's sittin' up there, I don't know, it's on the strip up there in Canada somewhere as to where we were and so now I gotta go up and clean it.
GRAFF: Ed, you need to get rid of that Republican mechanic. (Schultz laughs)
Better still, consider hiring one.
Ed, if you're reading this, I'm happy that you and your wife are OK after such a harrowing experience, and I write this with no snark whatsoever.
