By admin 
SUN LAKES, AZ (AZFamily) — A medevac helicopter pilot helped save the day when a small plane was going down in the dark in the southeast Valley last month.
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Despite the fear he was feeling, the small plane’s pilot, Joe Hatch, stayed incredibly calm.
“I like to call it my therapy,” said Hatch.
He loves to fly. It’s a hobby, and one he’s good at with more than 100 flights under his belt.
“I really thought I would be one of these old pilots that nothing like that ever happened to,” he said.
It’s an ironic thought considering his small plane wound up damaged in a field after he was forced to do what no pilot wants to.
“It’s running rough. I’m losing altitude at about 300 feet per minute,” he said to air traffic control. “I don’t know if I’m going to make it.”
Hatch made an emergency landing in May, but he lived to tell the tale after narrowly missing a power line.
The pilot said he worried about hitting power lines, homes, or traffic on the highway and wanted to be sure he didn’t put anyone else in harm’s way.
“I knew I was either going to die, I would be injured severely, or I would walk away,” said Hatch. “I remember coming to stop and going, I’m OK. Totally surprised that I was OK.”
On Friday, May 15, he decided to fly down to Ak-Chin Regional Airport in Maricopa. Hatch said he enjoyed three successful takeoffs and landings, refueled and was heading back to Chandler Municipal Airport when he heard a terrible noise.
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“There was a pop in the engine,” said Hatch.
It was just before 9 p.m. The darkness and vibrating cockpit made it impossible to see, but Hatch had an unexpected helper in the air nearby.
“This is Air Evac 1 right above you. The dark road off your, off behind you now looks like it has power lines, one right underneath you looks OK,” said a medical evacuation helicopter pilot in air traffic audio.
He happened to be in the same area when Hatch was looking for a safe place to land.
“Terrifying as it was, but it was very comforting to have him overhead, and I’m very glad that he did stay around and stayed overhead,” said Hatch. “He had no requirement to stay around. He heard me in trouble on the frequency with the tower and voluntarily stayed around.”
The plane ended up near Hunt Highway and Cooper Road in Sun Lakes.
Since then, Hatch has flown several times, and he has no plans to stop.
“It could happen again, but actually I’m playing the odds because what are the odds of happening twice, right?” he said.
Hatch walked away with only a minor scratch on his forehead.
After the emergency landing, he scrambled out of the plane and used a handheld radio to signal he was OK to the medevac pilot.
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