Nathan Michael Grube helped to rescue William S. Smith, Jr., from burning, Brunswick, Georgia, September 21, 2002. Smith, 52, was in the left front seat of a six-passenger airplane that a student pilot was attempting to land at an airport. The plane struck the ground just short of the runway and burst into flames at its front end. Both wings, which held the plane’s fuel tanks, and the plane’s only door, on the right side of the fuselage, were torn off in the accident, in which Smith lost consciousness. The pilot released his and Smith’s safety belt, then stepped from the wreckage. Grube, 23, chef, was driving near the airport and saw the burning plane just after the crash. He immediately parked and with others ran to the scene, approaching the plane on its right side. Despite flames on the plane’s nose and wings and in the cockpit, Grube leaned into the plane, his jacket placed over his head for protection, and grasped Smith. He and the pilot, who had returned to the plane and also reached inside for Smith, then pulled Smith from the wreckage. They and others carried him away from the plane, the front half of which was shortly engulfed by flames. Smith was hospitalized for treatment of severe burns and other injuries.
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