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Boater Saves Boy, 7, After Plane Crashes

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By JOHN SEEWER, The Associated Press

Published: September 5, 2007

TOLEDO, Ohio - Rowing through darkness, Chuck Herndon steered his boat toward where he had seen a plane's taillights plunge into Lake Erie. Then he heard a faint cry.

'I'm coming! I'm coming!' Herndon yelled, rowing furiously and following the voice. He couldn't see anything until a pair of small hands reached up and grabbed the side of the boat.

Once safely onboard, a shivering Joel Hutchison, 7, told Herndon that his dad and older brother didn't survive.

'He said, 'My father and my brother were killed in a plane crash,' just like that,' Herndon said Tuesday, a day after the Monday night crash off Kelleys Island, midway between Toledo and Cleveland.
Search crews found the body of his older brother, Jeremy Hutchison, 9, on Tuesday, the Coast Guard said. Their father, Jeff Hutchison, 46, was the pilot and remained missing.

Joel was listed in fair condition at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo.

Herndon said the boy told him he managed to get out of the plane because his seat belt broke during the crash.

The single-engine plane went down shortly after taking off about 9:30 p.m. from the island airport, a short landing strip catering to tourists and summer residents.

The boys and their father, a farmer, were heading home to Lima, about 94 miles away.

Herndon and his wife were near the beach when the plane flew by too low. There was no explosion, no loud boom.

'It just took a nice smooth arc into the water,' he said.

Herndon ran for his row boat. There weren't any other boats nearby or in the water.

'I thought if anybody was going to find anybody, I was going to be the one,' he said.

'I was lucky, and the kid was smart and strong.'

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