Ernest Thomas Zogaib saved Terry R. Northrop, and attempted to save Johannes W. Northrop from burning, Walbridge, Ohio, April 23, 1967. A small airplane piloted by the elder Northrop, 47, locomotive engineer and containing his son, Terry, 25, truck driver, crashed just after takeoff. Northrop and Terry were trapped in the cabin as flames broke out on the engine and wings. The flames were 10 feet high when Zogiab, 39, railroad tower operator, arrived and ran to a door of the cabin beneath a damaged wing. Gasoline dropping from the fuel tank in the wing was burning within two feet of the door. Zogaib forcibly opened the door and then extended his upper body into the cabin, where flames burned in one corner. Heat and smoke made breathing difficult. Zogaib attempted in vain to remove Northrop, who was jammed against the instrument panel and was inert. Kneeling on the doorsill, Zogaib then took hold of Terry, who had suffered broken vertebrae and was wedged between the seats. After freeing Terry, Zogaib pulled him from the cabin and moved him six feet away. Zogaib again tried without success to remove Northrop, who showed no sign of life although his clothing then was afire. Shouts got no response from him. Zogaib, who then was convinced that Northrop was dead, was forced to withdraw because of the spreading flames. He and another man took Terry farther from the airplane, on which the flames increased rapidly as the fuel continued to escape. Firemen extinguished the flames and removed the body of Northrop. Terry, who had sustained no burns, recovered from his injuries.
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