Newton has feet back on ground

A year ago this past Saturday Flomaton resident Scott Newton took off from the Atmore Airport in his experimental airplane that later crashed in the Robinsonville area leaving him with injuries that he now knows should have killed him.

This past Saturday, he met with family and friends near Pollard for a reunion of sorts as he still battles to get healthy.

"I'm glad to be here," he said Saturday. "God was in on it."

Newton, 48, said he was flying about 500 to 600 feet above the ground when the plane "became laterally unstable'' and began swinging from side to side.

"It felt like I was swinging from a rope," he said.

Newton said after he experienced the problems he was trying to land the plane. He saw a tree line and felt he had enough time to at least brush the top of the trees and land. But the impact with the trees tossed the plane and his prop hit a power line.

"I don't remember anything from the tree to the ground," Newton said Saturday.

Newton said he had a cell phone strapped to his leg and first called his wife Lisa to tell her he had crashed and knew he had a broken leg. He got her answering machine and then then dialed 911.

"The operator wanted to know where I was," he said. "I told her I'd just fallen from the sky and didn't have street signs."

He said a neighbor nearby was the first to reach him and the 911 operator used GPS off his telephone to send help.

He knew his leg was broken, but didn't know how bad. The left side of his face was crushed and he couldn't see out of his left eye. His right eye eventually closed as well due to the swelling. He said he could not see the first responders.

Newton was taken from the scene by LifeFlight helicopter to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola.

"I remember getting into the helicopter and they told me they were going to give me something to knock me out," Newton said. "I woke up two weeks later in Sacred Heart."

It's when he woke up he learned he probably should have died. In addition to a severely broken right leg and a shattered face, he had ruptured his aorta.

He said he learned he got to Sacred Heart about 11 a.m. and the artery tear wasn't officially detected until about 4 p.m.

He also learned that the femur in his right leg had come through the skin and was sticking in the ground when medical personnel arrived.

In danger of possibly having the leg amputated, Newton was referred to a specialist in Houston, Texas. About 8 inches of his femur had to be removed.

The first time he took the long ambulance ride to Houston, the doctor told him he was still too sick to begin the process of growing the bone back together.

Now with a rod in his leg and a halo around his left leg the bone is slowing growing back together; it will just take time. But he's made the transition from a wheel chair to crutches and is taking it one day at a time. He's heading back to Houston soon to get part of the leg halo taken off.

He said he has some numbness and the crushed face has taken away most of his taste and smell.

"I've heard people say they got the taste knocked out of their mouth, well I did," he said.

"I really shouldn't be here right now," Newton said Saturday. "God blessed me, a lot of people blessed me and my wife has blessed me more than she will ever know."

Before he headed into the house to eat lunch he really couldn't taste, Newton did say he will not fly again.