Death of Dr. Graham Wood

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Ilena Rose Nov 21 1999, 3:00 am hide options

Subject: Dr. Graham Wood dies in plane crash

http://www.ocregister.com/sear­ch/19991118/community/plane018­w.shtml

O.C. surgeon dies when his plane

crashes in Everglades

AVIATION: Graham Wood and a friend were flying

Wood's home-built craft.

November 18, 1999

By CAROL MASCIOLA

The Orange County Register

A Newport Beach plastic surgeon has died after crashing a

home-built

plane Monday into the Florida Everglades.

Graham Wood, 57, who lived part-time in Newport

Beach and

part-time in Florida, was flying with friend

Fridley, 57, of

North Carolina. Fridley survived and managed to slog

through deep

muck with a broken leg to a fish camp where he found help,

the

Broward County Sheriff's Office said.

Fridley told authorities that he and Wood were traveling

from Fort

Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Fort

Lauderdale

Executive Airport to have the plane's oil changed, but

decided

to take a

detour over the Everglades.

The plane's engine suddenly quit while Wood practiced

maneuvers,

plunging it into a swamp, Fridley reported to the

Sheriff's Office.

Fridley said Wood survived the crash but was critically

injured.

Fridley

pulled him from the cockpit onto the wing of Wood's

experimental

Rocket II airplane, and then made his way to the fish

camp,

despite his

injuries, the Sheriff's Office said.

" For somebody seriously injured to walk through that water

and muck

had to be a struggle, " said Jim Leljedal, a spokesman from

the Broward

County Sheriff's Office.

A Broward sheriff's helicopter and some boats began a

search after

family members notified the Coast Guard that the plane was

missing,

Leljedal said.

The wreckage was found in about three feet of water and

mud, about

four miles west of the Sawgrass Expressway in western

Broward.

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported Wednesday that

Wood was

a certified commercial pilot qualified to operate single-

engine and

multiengine airplanes and helicopters.