Telescope Observations And Life Events

November 1965: My oldest brother Richard took me, my brother Phillip, and Charles Hicks to thedrive-in to see a Nascar movie, titled “Red Line 7000.” I was 12 years old, Phillip 16, and Charlie was 17.

It became really foggy on our trip back home.  When we turned off highway 226 and then up the hill heading toward Lawndale on Shelby Road, we saw spotlights and emergency vehicles on the left, just beyond the crest of the hill.

A yellow Piper Cub had crashed within ~100 yards of the highway.  We stopped and actually walked to the crash-site. The pilot was killed. I’ll never forget what I saw that night with almost perfect recollection and clarity to this day.

The pilot had to be flying visual flight rules, known as”VFR” which means the pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the airplane is going, definitely not a foggy night.

Charlie Hicks would later have a distinguished career in the Air Force; flying A-10’s, Stealth’s and other high-performance fighter planes. He would also successfully make 200 nighttime carrier landings with the Navy.I feel absolutely certain he had no idea while at the crash scene, he would one day become a true “Top-Gun” pilot.

If you look at the photo “as following” the plane crashed just beside the tree line at the edge of the field, and just to the right of the largest tree and behind the two outermost fence posts. The plane was in a vertical position on its nose. The yellow Piper-Cub was fully illuminated by spotlights.

Eight years ago (2018) Debbie and I went to Zion Church in search of a marker. I remembered being in elementary school and hearing the story of a man falling out of an airplane, and anding in a cemetery. I‘d been thinking about this ever since the 5th grade. The story as following…

In 1956, a man fell out of a DC-3 twin-engine propeller driven plane and landed in the cemetery of Zion Baptist Church. This is something I’d heard about for so many years while attending elementary school.

June 13, 1956: The date of this event can be seen on the marker pictured below, and is the exact spot of impact. The man’s name was Oran Pruett.

Today (June 13th 2026) marks the 70th anniversary of the event!

I don’t know all the facts “definitively” but the short story: Pruett “allegedly” just opened the door and fell out. However, I did read a source a few years ago that said Mr. Pruitt had been drinking alcohol. Now I don’t know, but this for sure sounds plausible to me. I’m sure all those reading would agree.

A DC-3 does not have a pressurized cabin, so the maximum operating altitude is 10,000 feet, unlike a modern commercial jet cruising along at 35,000. However, falling from either altitude would not make much difference.

Debbie and I searched the cemetery on a summer afternoon in 2018, looking for the marker, but without success. However, when we were leaving, as luck would have it, we saw and met a very nice church member riding in a golf cart. We asked the man if he knew of the story, he said yes and told the us the following:

The church custodian on that fateful day heard the sound of Mr. Pruitt descending from the sky, and also the impact.