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| Richard Bach's near fatal plan crash, 31st August, 2012 |
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| Johnston's father looking at his plane after Daniel caused it's crash |
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| Daniel's father standing in front of a church sign just after crash |
Injured pilot in San Juan Is. crash ID'd as best-selling author
" FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. -
The pilot of a small plane that crashed Friday on San Juan Island has been identified as author Richard D. Bach, who wrote the runaway 1970s best-seller
Jonathan Livingston Seagull and other books.
Bach, 76, is listed in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was airlifted after the crash.
San Juan County Sheriff Rob Nou says Bach was trying to land on a grass airstrip Friday afternoon when he caught power lines with his landing gear as he neared the runway.
The plane landed upside-down in a field about two miles west of Friday Harbor. "
He crashed in a field about two miles west of Friday Harbor on a Friday???
"Right now we're waiting for the sedation to wear off, for him to fully wake up,"
the son said Saturday morning.
Bach is widely known as the author of the hugely popular 1970s best-seller
"Jonathan Livingston Seagull" which sold more than 1 million copies in 1972 alone.
The book contained fewer than 10,000 words, yet it broke all hard-cover sales records since
"Gone with the Wind," according to Wikipedia.
Jonathan is banished from the group only to come upon more enlightened gulls who guide him to spiritual lessons, which Jonathan then imparts to others.
The short, simply crafted book gained little to no critical attention upon publication, but rose to No. 1 for several weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and Bach quickly drew a loyal following.
In
1973, the book was turned into a movie,
Jonathan Livingston Seagull produced by Paramount Pictures.
The movie included a soundtrack by Neil Diamond."
"Bach, who claims to be a direct descendant of
Jonathan Livingston Seagull produced by Paramount Pictures.
The movie included a soundtrack by Neil Diamond."
"Bach, who claims to be a direct descendant of
Johann Sebastian Bach, has
been a pilot for his adult life, often touching on his experience in
the cockpit of his beloved plane in his writings.
Besides "Seagull" his other popular works include
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
a mystical story of a Midwestern barnstorming pilot's quest for self-discovery.
He often links the practice of flying to themes of a deeper spiritual quest.
"Dad described his religion as flying. He's a very avid aviator," James Bach said.
"It would be terrible if he recovers and can't fly again - this guy needs to fly."
At the time of the crash, he was flying a 2008 Easton Gilbert G SEAREY aircraft that he nicknamed "Puff."
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash"
And to my friend in England, Mike Perry
A Seagull Shows Us The Way To Fly
... what age does it say Richard was at the time of this crash?
76 !?
There is a wonderful podcast you can download and listen to
^ Richard Bach interview, Conscious Talk Radio.
I only heard it tonight and loved it.
The other sync was I was thinking of going to see the Hoodoo Gurus headline this years A Day on the Green, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go.
I love the Hoodoo Gurus, but I'm not that keen on the other bands.
So, I put my "Best of ..." album of theirs on the CD player to see if something would help me decide one way or another.
Track number 6 is titled, I Was a Kamikaze Pilot.
I was a, was a kamikaze pilot
They gave me a plane, I couldn't fly it home
Taught how to take off, I don't know how to land
They say it doesn't matter and I just cannot understand
I was a kamikaze pilot
They gave me a plane, I couldn't fly it home
Left my happy homeland in a zero
I got engine trouble so I couldn't be a hero
(Do you think I care?)
Now I'll keep my two feet on the ground
'Cause when you're in the clouds
Everybody tries to shoot you down
I was a kamikaze pilot
They gave me a plane, I couldn't fly it home
On an island there ain't too much to do
Look after number one 'cause I think I can see
Lee Marvin chasin' after you
I was a kamikaze pilot
They gave me a plane, I couldn't fly it home
Cherry blossoms falling down
Besides "Seagull" his other popular works include
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
a mystical story of a Midwestern barnstorming pilot's quest for self-discovery.
He often links the practice of flying to themes of a deeper spiritual quest.
"Dad described his religion as flying. He's a very avid aviator," James Bach said.
"It would be terrible if he recovers and can't fly again - this guy needs to fly."
At the time of the crash, he was flying a 2008 Easton Gilbert G SEAREY aircraft that he nicknamed "Puff."
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash"
A Seagull Shows Us The Way To Fly
... what age does it say Richard was at the time of this crash?
76 !?
^ Richard Bach interview, Conscious Talk Radio.
I only heard it tonight and loved it.
I love the Hoodoo Gurus, but I'm not that keen on the other bands.
So, I put my "Best of ..." album of theirs on the CD player to see if something would help me decide one way or another.
Track number 6 is titled, I Was a Kamikaze Pilot.
They gave me a plane, I couldn't fly it home
Taught how to take off, I don't know how to land
They say it doesn't matter and I just cannot understand
I was a kamikaze pilot
They gave me a plane, I couldn't fly it home
Left my happy homeland in a zero
I got engine trouble so I couldn't be a hero
(Do you think I care?)
Now I'll keep my two feet on the ground
'Cause when you're in the clouds
Everybody tries to shoot you down
I was a kamikaze pilot
They gave me a plane, I couldn't fly it home
On an island there ain't too much to do
Look after number one 'cause I think I can see
Lee Marvin chasin' after you
I was a kamikaze pilot
They gave me a plane, I couldn't fly it home
Cherry blossoms falling down
A song on the album I have often skipped, or never taken much notice of ... until now.
The funny thing talking about these two near fatal plane crashes above is that the next few tracks are - 7.Bittersweet.
8. Like Wow, Wipe-out..
9. Death-Defying..
11. In the Wild..
But apart from the plane crash syncs, a song that really appeals to me at the moment is 12. What's My Scene?
Turning 48 next month and after 24 years driving forklifts for the same company, I think that the above song really does require a response soon, before my own career plane crashes.
And here is another interesting interview with Richard -
New Age - A Long Way Ahead to Fly
" How will we earn our living?
Same as now.
We will find our gifts and offer them to others, and in return a few others will thank us for them, just as we give our thanks for the gifts they have offered us.
Nowadays the thanks are sometimes expressed as 'money,' and the system is sometimes called 'commerce'.
There will be some sort of equivalent, I imagine, for quite a while.
What is the promise of these times?
By now you know how I'm going to answer:
The same promise of any time and every time - we are free to discover who we really are this minute, and to practice that in our daily lives."
Another weird thing I just thought of was how Stephen King writes under the name of Richard Bachman.
Update: November 11, 2012
Update on Richard Bach’s Recovery
" Richard Bach is now out of hospital, 8 weeks (almost to the hour) since the crash, according to Richard Bach’s daughter, Erika.
According to his son, James, he is still very weak and needs to practice walking again.
They are under no illusions that this will be a long, slow recovery.
In spite of this, Richard is determined to do as much as he can for himself .
After being in intensive care for some time, Richard Bach finally “woke up” and is alert. According to his daughter, he has turned a corner.”
However his progress is slow, and although he may leave hospital soon and start home therapy, there are “a few big challenges left with his physical body,” according to his son, James Bach. Perhaps of most concern is that Richard’s brain injury has affected his speech, a brain disorder called aphasia.
His son, James, wrote on Twitter: “Interesting side effect of Dad’s head injury: almost every sentence is literally poetry.
Imagine being forced to talk in obscure metaphors.”
He also wrote that his “philosophical mind is there and ticking,” and that “he is applying his ideas about healing, etc. to himself, now.”
However, “he’s pretty frustrated, but he seems determined to live and get through it at this point.
That was not always apparent.”
Richard’s new book Travels with Puff
(the plane in which he had his accident)
was published by NiceTiger on October 12.
It is available from Barnes and Noble.
The book’s subtitle, A Gentle Game of Life and Death, is an interesting one, and some of us following Richard’s blog questioned it. "
Update: August 12th, 2014.
From
"With Puff rebuilt as good as new, the author of best selling book
Jonathan Livingston Seagull has also rebuilt himself to again soar in the skies and write of his near-death experience in
Illusions II: The Adventures of a Reluctant Student
(which topped the Kindle Single’s list the day it was published on February 17, 2014).
In the Introduction to Illusions II, Richard wrote:
When I came out of my coma, I was told that it would take a year to getter, to learn how to speak, stand, walk, run, read, drive a car, fly my airplane.
The airplane was a wreckage.
I didn’t know why I lived, something promised on the other side of dying ?
There was no question that Puff, my seaplane had to fly again.
My life today, it took a little crash, a near death event, Sabryna’s certainty that I would be recovered from every suggestion of injury, my meetings with Illusion’s Messiah Donald Shimoda, with my other teachers, with Puff rebuilt; for this story to be told.
There’s no blessing that can’t be a disaster, and no disaster that can’t be a blessing.
Violent disasters, do they always become blessings?
I hope so.
I hope I can have my quiet little adventures, write them, without needing to die.
– Richard Bach, December 2013
During his recovery, Richard returned to Jonathan Livingston Seagull after Sabryna found the manuscript for the fourth part of the book hidden away in a box.
Richard had decided not to include Part Four at the time Jonathan was published because he felt it “wasn’t the time for it.”
But reading it during his recovery he knew that its time for publication had come – even though it was 43 years later.
When Jonathan Livingston Seagull was published in 1970 it topped the New York Times Best Seller list for 38 weeks and led the Publishers Weekly list of bestselling U.S. novels in 1972 and 1973.
And now,
Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The New Complete Edition,
is available as an e-book."
Read more at
And here is another interesting interview with Richard -
New Age - A Long Way Ahead to Fly
" How will we earn our living?
Same as now.
We will find our gifts and offer them to others, and in return a few others will thank us for them, just as we give our thanks for the gifts they have offered us.
Nowadays the thanks are sometimes expressed as 'money,' and the system is sometimes called 'commerce'.
There will be some sort of equivalent, I imagine, for quite a while.
 |
| Richard Bach |
By now you know how I'm going to answer:
The same promise of any time and every time - we are free to discover who we really are this minute, and to practice that in our daily lives."
Another weird thing I just thought of was how Stephen King writes under the name of Richard Bachman.
Below is a video of Richard flying Puff, the plane he crashed in.
Update on Richard Bach’s Recovery
" Richard Bach is now out of hospital, 8 weeks (almost to the hour) since the crash, according to Richard Bach’s daughter, Erika.
According to his son, James, he is still very weak and needs to practice walking again.
They are under no illusions that this will be a long, slow recovery.
In spite of this, Richard is determined to do as much as he can for himself .
After being in intensive care for some time, Richard Bach finally “woke up” and is alert. According to his daughter, he has turned a corner.”
However his progress is slow, and although he may leave hospital soon and start home therapy, there are “a few big challenges left with his physical body,” according to his son, James Bach. Perhaps of most concern is that Richard’s brain injury has affected his speech, a brain disorder called aphasia.
His son, James, wrote on Twitter: “Interesting side effect of Dad’s head injury: almost every sentence is literally poetry.
Imagine being forced to talk in obscure metaphors.”
He also wrote that his “philosophical mind is there and ticking,” and that “he is applying his ideas about healing, etc. to himself, now.”
However, “he’s pretty frustrated, but he seems determined to live and get through it at this point.
That was not always apparent.”
Richard’s new book Travels with Puff
(the plane in which he had his accident)
was published by NiceTiger on October 12.
It is available from Barnes and Noble.
The book’s subtitle, A Gentle Game of Life and Death, is an interesting one, and some of us following Richard’s blog questioned it. "
Update: August 12th, 2014.
From
"With Puff rebuilt as good as new, the author of best selling book
Jonathan Livingston Seagull has also rebuilt himself to again soar in the skies and write of his near-death experience in
Illusions II: The Adventures of a Reluctant Student
(which topped the Kindle Single’s list the day it was published on February 17, 2014).
In the Introduction to Illusions II, Richard wrote:
When I came out of my coma, I was told that it would take a year to getter, to learn how to speak, stand, walk, run, read, drive a car, fly my airplane.
The airplane was a wreckage.
I didn’t know why I lived, something promised on the other side of dying ?
There was no question that Puff, my seaplane had to fly again.
My life today, it took a little crash, a near death event, Sabryna’s certainty that I would be recovered from every suggestion of injury, my meetings with Illusion’s Messiah Donald Shimoda, with my other teachers, with Puff rebuilt; for this story to be told.
There’s no blessing that can’t be a disaster, and no disaster that can’t be a blessing.
Violent disasters, do they always become blessings?
I hope so.
I hope I can have my quiet little adventures, write them, without needing to die.
– Richard Bach, December 2013
During his recovery, Richard returned to Jonathan Livingston Seagull after Sabryna found the manuscript for the fourth part of the book hidden away in a box.
Richard had decided not to include Part Four at the time Jonathan was published because he felt it “wasn’t the time for it.”
But reading it during his recovery he knew that its time for publication had come – even though it was 43 years later.
When Jonathan Livingston Seagull was published in 1970 it topped the New York Times Best Seller list for 38 weeks and led the Publishers Weekly list of bestselling U.S. novels in 1972 and 1973.
And now,
Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The New Complete Edition,
is available as an e-book."
Read more at
Love his work. Saw him fly years ago at an airshow. Wrote him and asked what he thought of Seth. He was one of the few people outside of Jane Roberts' circle to actually sit in on a session with Seth. Friday and Friday: good synchro you got there, Daz. All of it's great stuff, lots of connections.
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