Plane crash survivor graduates on time at Lynchburg College

By Ray Reed

Published: May 10, 2008

The cheers lingered a bit longer as Jason Early walked across the Lynchburg College stage to receive his diploma Saturday. The limp was barely noticeable.

Early’s on-campus appearance for an on-time graduation seemed unlikely after he was seriously injured in a plane crash just before Thanksgiving.

His father, Brian Early, died in the crash near a small airport north of New York City.

Jason survived the accident, along with his basketball teammate, Sean Sutherland. But Jason was left with two broken thighs, a fracture in his left hand and other cracked bones.

Surgeries, physical therapy sessions, and a semester of completing school work by e-mail from home were part of Jason’s long journey from the crash site in the woods near New Windsor, N.Y.

Support from his large family and his college was key to helping him on his journey, Jason said Saturday in his first public comments since the crash.

“My dad was one of seven, so we have got a pretty big family, which is great,” Jason said. “It’s been a ride, but they’ve been there through it all, and it’s absolutely what got us through.”

The college supported the family as well, he said. “The school was great. They cooperated fully with us, and helped us make sure I was out here today,” Jason said.

He earned a bachelor of arts degree in communications, with an emphasis on public relations and journalism. While many of the 450-plus bachelor’s candidates walked across the stage to cheers from families and friends, the ovation for Early seemed to last a couple seconds longer.

The goal of graduation had been replaced with the goal of survival after their plane went down in the early morning hours of Nov. 21.

Jason and Sean spent nearly four hours huddling together while rescuers honed in on Sean’s cell phone signal.

Sean, a junior, needed back surgery after the crash, and was able to return to campus for the second semester. He was present to watch the graduation Saturday.

Both Sean and Jason, a point guard, were starters on the Lynchburg College Hornets basketball team.

Their teammates voted to continue playing their season, and finished with a 3-22 record while wearing black jerseys in memory of Brian Early. He had attended most of his son’s games, often by flying in.

The Earlys were dropping Sean off in New York for a Thanksgiving visit with one of his friends, who was attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. They planned to fly home to Radnor, Pa., afterward.

Jason can recall every detail of the crash. “I didn’t get knocked out or anything, so I remember it all,” he said.

Fog surrounded Stewart International Airport as the plane piloted by Brian Early pulled up out of its first landing approach.

“We came down, and I guess we were a little off or something” on the approach path, Jason said. “He said, ‘take another loop,’ and we did. I guess something went wrong in between there somewhere.”

Jason said he didn’t think fog was a factor in the crash, because his father was trained to fly without being able to see the runway. “They land blind all the time, so that wasn’t the issue,” he said.

After the impact, “Sean was knocked out for a minute. I was really the only one conscious there for a couple of minutes,” Jason said.

Then Sean came to, and “we finagled ourselves out of the plane and got away from it a little bit. Sean got on the phone and got the rescuers there.

“It was cold, and we had to sit there three or four hours, something like that. Just lying there holding each other, trying to get through it,” Jason said.

The two were good friends before the crash, and “it’s a shame we had to get closer this way. Certainly we are a lot closer now. We talk pretty much every day,” Jason said.

His next goal, Jason said, is “to take the summer off, try to get little bit healthy, and start looking for a job in the fall.”

Summer will include physical therapy sessions, which now are down to three days per week. “I go for a couple of hours for therapy on my legs,” he said.

Jason said he hopes to play basketball again recreationally.

“Doctors are pretty cautious,” he said. “They’re not very forth giving with information, but we’ll see.

“Certainly, recovery is going good and we’re a lot further along than we thought originally at this point, so who knows. We’ll see.”

His career goals aren’t clear, except that he’s sure he won’t use the communications degree for a job in journalism, and perhaps not in public relations either.

“I’ve had a couple of interviews, with insurance companies and financial planning, stuff like that. We’ll see,” he said.