Randy Brooks wasn’t just shivering – he was jerking violently in the near-freezing cold as he huddled Saturday evening on a remote shoreline on Lake Powell. He had just survived an airplane crash into the lake with his brother, Leslie, and former Olympic wrestling champion Rulon Gardner.
Leslie didn’t give his brother the shirt off his back, but he did the next best thing: He shared the long-sleeved nylon pullover he was wearing. Randy Brooks said that shirt saved his life.
The three had survived a swim of more than a mile Saturday afternoon in 44-degree water after their plane went down in southeastern Utah.
Now the Brooks brothers huddled inside the shirt with Leslie’s head resting on Randy’s belly. Then Gardner offered to make an alteration.
“Me and Leslie is trying to rip the hole bigger so I can get my head in there, too, and we’ve got no power left,” said Randy Brooks, who owned and piloted the single-engine Cirrus SR22 now at the bottom of the lake. “Rulon says, ‘Give me that shirt,’ and he ripped that sucker like it was a piece of toilet paper. I will laugh about that for the rest of my life.”
Gardner, who feared he was drowning in the immediate aftermath of the crash, had spent an even lonelier night five years ago after crashing his snowmobile in the Wyoming wilderness. He convinced his companions Saturday that they would survive this one.
“Because he had already done it before, it was comforting to me,” Leslie said. “The Lord gave me the strength to swim and energy through the night, but Rulon, because he had done it before, I believed in him and I believed we could do it.”
They huddled, shivered and prayed together.
“Leslie and I took turns laying on top of each other, absolutely not sleeping,” Randy said. “I’m in this jerking mode, and the other two are just shaking. Rulon was laying sideways, and he would go from one side to the other so his belly would touch us sometimes and his back the others. That’s how we spent the night.”
The light wind stilled
Saturday afternoon had been gorgeous. Randy Brooks had agreed to fly his brother and Gardner down to Lake Powell from Spanish Fork, Utah. They had checked out Randy’s houseboat and buzzed canyon walls. Then Randy dropped the plane down to 25 feet above the lake, and suddenly the light wind stilled. The ripples on the lake disappeared. The surface turned glassy.
“Normally what you would do is pull up because you lose your depth perception when it’s glass smooth or dark,” Randy said. “I did not pull up immediately, I hesitated, and the next thing I knew we were on the water.”
He estimates the plane was traveling 155 mph when the left landing gear hit the surface.
“The airplane skidded on the water, just like you would on a runway,” Randy said. “We didn’t have an impact to speak of, it was a very smooth landing, but a very rapid deceleration. There was no crash involved.”
Gardner said the crash happened too fast to be frightening, but the situation turned scary in a hurry. The men crawled out of the sinking airplane, the brothers on the left wing, Gardner on the right. They would have to swim for it.
Remembering that freezing night in Wyoming in 2002, Gardner was determined to swim with his coat on, but the brothers knew he’d never make it to shore that way.
“When I hit the water, I was drowning, I was done,” the 300-pound Gardner said. “Until they convinced me to let go of my coat, I was done. At one point my head was underneath the water. All I could think about was, one second I was above water, alive, and the next second I am drowning to death.”
Gardner finally let go of the coat and began backstroking to shore. It took Leslie just over an hour to reach land, Randy about an hour and 15 minutes, and Gardner about an hour and a half.
“Leslie got on shore, I got within 50 yards or so of shore, and I was out of gas,” Randy said. “I just reached into depths I’ve never reached before in my life. I honestly don’t know, I can’t explain how I made it.”
Sounds of a boat motor
On Sunday morning, Randy heard a boat motor, ran about a half mile in the direction of the noise and flagged down two men from Grand Junction competing in a bass-fishing tournament. Bill Brown, the owner of the boat, said there was no reason for him and his friend, Damien Loy, to be fishing in that area of the lake because every angler knows that’s not the place to find bass this time of year.
“All I can tell you is, there was a higher power,” Brown said. “I had an uncontrollable urge. The night before, I just feel they were sending out a message while they were sitting there in the dark, huddled together, praying.
“I knew I wasn’t going to catch no fish there.”
It was about 8 a.m. Sunday. Loy had just caught a striper.
“As we were motoring over to him, I looked at Damien and said, ‘Look at that guy, he’s in a T-shirt, what is going on?”‘ Brown said. “It’s freezing, we’re fishing with gloves on, coveralls, insulated bibs, sock hats and hoods. There’s this guy in a T-shirt, rubbing his arms. That’s when we knew something bad was wrong.”
Randy directed Brown to where Gardner and Leslie were waiting. It didn’t take Brown long to recognize Gardner, a hero of his.
“I was standing there looking at this massive man on the beach with his arms tucked inside his shirt, little white T-shirt, no shoes on,” Brown said. “Les, he couldn’t even walk, he was down on all fours, shivering profusely. His motor skills were shot.”
The five men piled into Brown’s two-seat bass boat and headed for the closest place where they could pick up a cellphone signal. Brown and Loy fed the others with crackers, tuna fish, Little Debbie cakes and granola bars while waiting for park rangers to arrive.
“I’m a religious person, so is Rulon and so is my brother,” Randy said. “I’m not a guy saying God wanted me to live through this, because I’m not that special, but I will tell you this: There were things that happened that were way, way above my comprehension. That ranger pulls out a chart that (says) we should have been unconscious in 30 minutes after we hit that water.”
Gardner, who has shown a proclivity for cheating death, took it in stride.
“In a few seconds it went from a being a beautiful, gorgeous afternoon to being a life-threatening situation,” Gardner said. “To have something like that happen in a matter of seconds is crazy.”
Staff writer John Meyer can be reached at 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
Rising from the mat
Rulon Gardner added to his legend last weekend after spending the night on the shores of Lake Powell after a plane crash. A look at Gardner’s previous trials:
In the fourth grade, Gardner accidentally impaled himself on a hunting arrow he had taken to school for show and tell.
Feb. 14, 2002, Gardner’s snowmobile dropped off a hidden snow shelf and into a frozen lake in Wyoming. He spent 17 hours struggling to survive in 25-below- zero weather. He lost one toe to frostbite.
March 30, 2004, Gardner crashed his motorcycle into a car and flipped over the handlebars. He suffered only abrasions and a bruised heel.
April 3, 2004, Gardner dislocated his wrist and three fingers while playing pickup basketball. Although he popped the wrist back into place and kept playing, he had to have surgery and have pins placed in his wrist.
Feb. 24, 2007, He’s in a plane that crashes into Lake Powell in Utah, and he swims to shore and spends the night huddled with the pilot and his brother before being rescued by a fisherman.
Sources: Denver Post archives; Newsday; The New York Times; Dayton Daily News
COMPILED BY REGINA AVILA OF THE DENVER POST RESEARCH LIBRARY
