Stunt Pilot Walks Away from Plane Crash

Siloam Springs, ARAs a third generation stunt pilot, Matt Younkin is used to defying death from inside his plane. Yet even for a trained stuntman, surviving a plane accident is a miraculous feat.

On November 10, Younkin was flying his single engine aerobatic plane, the Younkin Mullicoupe, when a power failure forced him to attempt an emergency landing, resulting in a crash at a nearby model airplane field in Siloam Springs according to KSFM, a local news affiliate.

Younkin is no stranger to airplane accidents, as his father, Bobby Younkin, died in a tragic plane crash that also claimed the life of his co-pilot, Jimmy Franklin, during an air show in 2005.

A study conducted by OAG Aviation claims that the odds of being involved in a fatal accident while flying one of the top airlines is one in 13.57 million, but the survival rate for passengers of planes involved in fatal crashes is only 24 percent.

"Anytime that you have trouble with an aircraft and can't land it decently, you are lucky to walk away or get carried away," Arkansas State Trooper Leonard McCandless told the local news. "We're all pulling for him because it was such a tragedy when his dad got killed. For the family, they don't want a reoccurrence of that."