Gerald R. Boyer helped to save Willis Jackson and Virgil R. Savoy from burning, Houston, Texas, March 21, 1980. When the small airplane they were aboard crashed into a hangar following takeoff and burst into flames at William P. Hobby Airport, Jackson, 31, and Savoy, 46, sat doubled over and unconscious in their seats near the airplane’s rear passenger door. Boyer, 35, corporate pilot, ran to the airplane and helped another man pull Jackson a safe distance from the wreckage. Boyer returned to the airplane, which was quickly being consumed by 40-foot-high flames. Despite the flames, he reached into the plane through its opened passenger door and, with some difficulty, unfastened Savoy’s seat belt. Boyer and the other man then removed Savoy from the airplane and dragged him away. Jackson recovered from his injuries after hospitalization, but Savoy died a short time after he was freed.
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