I WATCHED IN HORROR AS THE one-winged plane burst out of the smoke from the wildfire and careened past our windshield, spewing its own trail of smoke behind it. The only thing I could do was follow it as it went down.
“If he bails out, we can still try to rescue him!” Frank shouted.
“Already on it,” I said, turning the helicopter south away from the wildfire to stay on the disabled plane’s tail.
Frank hit redial on his phone and shouted into it. “There’s a bush plane going down south of the forest fire! Get rescue crews—Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?” He looked down at his phone with a grim expression. “I lost the signal.”
“The plane’s losing altitude fast. He’s—” As I looked ahead, the mountain forest below us started to give way to the first signs of civilization. “Oh no.”
The plane was headed straight for Last Chance.
The pilot must have had the same reaction I did, because the plane began struggling to climb. It was still going down fast, but all it would take was a little extra elevation to clear the village before it crashed.
“You can do it!” Frank shouted. “Just a little more!”
“I think it’s high enough! As long as he can maintain that trajectory, he can clear the town with room to spare.”
“It’s all woods on the other side of town. At least no one will get hurt in the crash.” Frank paused, watching the smoke billow from the plane’s missing wing as the aircraft made its doomed final approach toward Last Chance. “I mean, no one else.”
“The pilot!” I shouted, gawking out the windscreen as a lone figure leaped from the plane. “He bailed just in time!”
Relief surged through me as I watched the parachute unfurl over Last Chance.
I didn’t have to see the daredevil pilot’s face to know who it was. I recognized him instantly.
He floated serenely toward the village as his pilotless plane soared out of control and crashed into the hills on the other side of town. The explosion was almost as bright as his hideously tacky, neon-pink Hawaiian shirt.