Tribute To A Flier Fellow Pilots, Ted Koppel Praise Bob Heale, Who Was Killed At Fairchild Last Weekend

About 200 people listened to a tribute from television newsman Ted Koppel at a memorial service for Spokane pilot Bob Heale, who died in an air show plane crash last weekend.

Koppel, host of the ABC news program “Nightline,” sent a videotape in which he told of how Heale had rescued Koppel and his crew in 1970 while they were covering a battle in Laos during the Vietnam War.

“Bob Heale was and remains my hero,” Koppel said in an interview Friday.

“In some measure, everything good that’s happened to me since 1970 I owe to him.

“You better believe gratitude kept me in contact with him,” Koppel said. “If not for his courage in pulling us out of there, I’d not be alive today.”

Investigators have not yet determined what caused Heale’s stunt plane to crash during the annual Aerospace Days show at Fairchild Air Force Base last Saturday.

Heale’s plane was circling when it suddenly plunged and landed on its belly onto a dirt field next to a runway.

Heale, 62, was alive when he was pulled from the wreckage, but died shortly afterward at Deaconess Medical Center.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigation is focusing on possible mechanical problems with the controls on the French-made CAP-10 stunt plane.

Friday’s tribute took place at Felts Field, where the flag was at half-staff and pilots flew the missing man formation.

“He would have wanted us to celebrate,” friend Mike Scalera said. “Not his passing, but life.”

Gloria Sands said Heale was an excellent pilot and his death “makes all of us pilots a little bit nervous.”

Heale was an experienced stunt pilot and had for years performed at Silverwood Theme Park north of Coeur d’Alene. Silverwood officials have canceled their air shows for the rest of the year.

Heale was born in Seattle, and began taking flying lessons at the age of 15. He had logged more than 31,000 hours in the air.