Indiana Highschooler survives 2nd plane crash!

(This exert is taken from an article by Jeff Karoub of the Associated Press)

DETROIT (AP)A standout Indiana high school basketball player with the promise of playing at the University of Michigan is fighting for his life after surviving the second plane crash of his young life.

Austin Hatch, 16, of Fort Wayne, Ind., was in critical condition Saturday in a northern Michigan hospital after the Friday evening crash that killed his father, Dr. Stephen Hatch, and his stepmother, Kim. Austin and his pilot father had survived a 2003 crash that killed Austin's mother and two siblings.

The teen was "the apple of his dad's eye," and Stephen Hatch took great delight and pride in his son's athletic accomplishments, Dr. G. David Bojrab, a colleague and close friend of the father's, told The Associated Press.

Austin, a junior at Canterbury School in Fort Wayne, Ind., committed earlier this month to play basketball at Michigan, where his father and mother went to school.

He told the Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne for a story published last week that he talked to Michigan coach John Beilein by phone and accepted a full-ride scholarship. It was the first day that NCAA coaches could call recruits for the 2013 class, the newspaper said.

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Bojrab said the Hatches were flying to their summer home on Walloon Lake in Michigan's northwestern Lower Peninsula, where Stephen Hatch and his brothers all owned property, when his single-engine plane flew into a garage near the Charlevoix Municipal Airport. It was the same home Stephen Hatch and the family were returning from nearly eight years ago when they crashed in Indiana.

"He was such a strong proponent of flying and teaching people to fly. ... I think he felt compelled to continue his passion," said Bojrab, a partner with Hatch in Pain Management Associates in Fort Wayne.

"He felt compelled to show people that accidents do happen. He didn't want people to look in the other direction."

A 2005 federal report on the September 2003 crash found inaccurate preflight planning resulted in the plane not having enough fuel. The National Transportation Safety Board determined a utility pole the airplane hit during its forced landing, a low ceiling and dark night also contributed to the crash.

Bojrab said his friend disputed the report's findings, believing equipment failure caused the crash.

"When he crashed, it was an inferno, which makes you wonder how he could have been out of gas," Bojrab said.

Hatch saved Austin, but his other children -- Lindsay, 11, and Ian, 5 -- died along with his wife, Julie, 38.

"His wife and two children were in flames and he was never able to reach them," Bojrab said. "Steve reached over to his son who was sitting in front with him and tossed him out the window to save his life."

(Read the whole article HERE.)