"I knew we were going to wreck so I grabbed Tobey and tucked him up against me and put my arm up against the seat," Williams said, referring to his 8-year-old German shepherd search dog.
The plane, a Cessna 207, crashed into brush at the end of the runway as it was taking off at about 6:30 p.m. Friday from the Western Alaska village of Tuluksak, where Williams and Tobey had been searching for a man who had been reported missing five days earlier.
"We crashed about 100 feet off the end of the runway," Williams said.
Williams, 54, and Tobey were able to walk away from the crash that also injured the pilot, Rob Morgan of Bethel, and an Alaska State Trooper, James Lester.
Both he and Tobey "got banged up," Williams said, but they emerged from the crash in better shape than Morgan and Lester, both of whom had head and facial injuries that required multiple stitches.
"The only blood I got on me was from other people," Williams said.
Tobey suffered bruised ribs and cuts on his legs and nose but didn't require any stitches.
'BLOOD EVERYWHERE'
Williams and Tobey were called out to Tuluksak to help troopers in the search for Crim Alexie, a 19-year-old Tuluksak man who went missing on Aug. 28 after he and some friends were drinking near the village. Locals had been searching for Alexie for five days when troopers called Williams and Tobey in to help. Williams said Tobey was able to get "a locate" on Alexie in the Kuskokwim River during the search.
"It had been a good day," Williams said of the search. "Tobey got a locate in the water that I was pretty confident with."
At around 6:30 p.m., the group boarded the Grant Aviation plane for the flight back to Bethel. Williams and Tobey were in the third row of tandem seats when the plane crashed. Lester was in the seat in front of Tobey and Morgan was alone in the front row.
The plane had just got off the ground when "it became pretty obvious we were going to crash into the brush at the end of the runway," said Williams, himself a pilot with 30 years experience who has survived two other crashes.
Morgan, the pilot, was knocked unconscious in the crash when he slammed into the plane's control panel, Williams said. Lester, the trooper, was also dazed after slamming into the seat in front of him and then having 90-pound Tobey bang into his seat from behind. Both men were bleeding profusely.
"There was blood everywhere," Williams said. "I got Tobey out. I got the trooper out. It took me a while to get the pilot out of there because he was in la-la land."
IMPROVISED MEDICINE
Williams then got the survival gear out of the plane and moved everyone away from the crash. Villagers showed up a few minutes later and transported all four crash victims to the local clinic but there were no EMTs or medical personnel in the village.
"The trooper had been an EMT but he was pretty banged up," Williams said. "I kind of patched him up and he directed me what to do to the other guy."
A medivac flight was called to transport the pilot back to the hospital in Bethel while Williams, Lester and Tobey waited for a plane from the flight service to arrive. They were back in Bethel two hours after the crash. Williams and Lester were released from the hospital a few hours later while Morgan spent the night.
By chance, there was an Anchorage veterinarian in the village who was able to X-ray and treat Tobey. Other than a few patches of missing skin and the bruised ribs, the dog was fine, Williams said.
Both Williams and Tobey flew back to Fairbanks via Alaska Airlines on Saturday night. Williams said the airline reserved an entire row of seats for Tobey so he could lay down.
"They treated us real nice," he said.
Tobey was still in a bit of shock for a few days following the crash but seemed to acting more like himself by Tuesday, the owner said.
The National Transportation Safety Board was notified and is investigating the crash, according to troopers.
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