but an investigation by the national transportation safety board finds the crash could have easily been avoided. in this case, we obviously had a healthy live pilot to be able to talk to so that s where we re going to center in on. the ntsb determines the reason for engine failure, pilot error. the pilot ran out of gas and didn t switch over to his reserve fuel tank. in the hospital, he came up and i thanked him for saving our lives, because he did. he landed the craft, everybody walked away for the most part. however, in the same breath, damn, i wish you wouldn t have crashed our plane. in the years since the plane crash, the fisher brothers have recovered from their injuries but neither has set foot in a small plane again. the accident has given them a new lease on life. it made us both realize that time is more important than anything. time and your family, time goes fast. i want to use it the best i can. mark and ron spend that time
last. before the brothers can relax, the motor cuts out again. you just keep hoping get it started, come on, man, just get it started. he looked a little frantic up there. this time, the pilot can t restart the engine. i can see the color car, i could see people walking on the sidewalk down there. get it started. desperation set in at that point. come on, get it going, get it going. like on cue, i m looking out the window, looking out here and we look toward each other, oh, it was just identical. we said we are that was our last parting words to each other. the plane plummets from 800 feet. mark and ron know the pilot is going to crash the plane. the question is where. he was scrambling to find a place to land that. he didn t try and start the motor anymore. it was done. it was over. we re going to land this baby.
plane crash lands during the middle of a game. oh, my god! people on the baseball field turned around, looked at the sky and saw this thing happening and started waving and saying no. at that point, you realize this is it, you know. there s no there s no tomorrow. july 31st, 2003. beluga, alaska. brothers ron and mark fisher are on their yearly fishing trip. every year my brother would come up for his annual fishing trip trying to outdo me catching fish and little sibling competitions. we had a great afternoon fishing. we caught a lot of fish, the weather was perfect. content with their catch, the fisher brothers charter a four-seater plane to shuttle them to anchorage. at 7:45 p.m., the siblings along with another passenger and the pilot take off. the sun s still up. it s still july so it s land of the midnight sun. perfect alaskan night.
and the total feeling of helplessness, i m in no control here, i ve got nothing to say, we re screwed. right before the impact, the plane s left wing clips a chain link fence. the engine tears off and the plane cartwheels across the running track. the second we hit, it was hard. it was instant. my right foot just snapped, it was noisy, it was brutal. the plane catches fire. fans and players, including andrew cowan, rush to the crash site. everyone was afraid right away there would be a massive explosion. adrenaline was pumping. i just said i need to get out of here. in case this thing blows up. ron fisher escapes the burning cessna. injured but safe from the flaming wreckage, ron s thoughts turn to his brother, mark. i thought he was dead. it was really scary to think you may have just lost your brother. moments later, andrew cowan