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Above: Devin Humphrey exercising his knee during physical therapy following his Aug. 9, 2019, plane crash in Cordell, photo by Bob Henline. Left: Humphrey immediately following his crash, photo courtesy of Devin Humphrey. -
Humphrey immediately following his crash, photo courtesy of Devin Humphrey.
Devin Humphrey is certainly no stranger to pain. Before his Aug. 9, 2019, plane crash at Cordell Airport, Humphrey had suffered numerous broken bones and more than a dozen concussions while pursuing a career in Freestyle Moto-Cross on four wheelers.
“Being busted up is nothing new to me,” Humphrey said. “This is actually pretty mellow compared to other injuries I’ve been through.”
The “mellow” injuries referred to by Humphrey from his plane crash include a serious concussion which resulted in a brain bleed, categorized as a traumatic brain injury, a cracked rib, and contusions and lacerations of his knee. Humphrey was recuperating at the Alliance inpatient physical therapy center until his discharge Saturday, Aug. 24, 2019. He’s now looking forward to getting back on the job as assistant chief and EMS director for the Cordell Fire Department and, of course, getting himself back into the pilot’s seat.
“Whenever I was injured before, the first question I would always ask was ‘when can I ride again?’ Humphrey said. “I won’t be asking that one now, because my plane is toast. I’ll be up and running before that plane is, it’s unrecoverable. I’m not going to rush it, though, if all goes well I can be back up in the air in a couple of months.”
The Federal Aviation Administration’s final report on the incident is not yet available, but Humphrey said the crash was caused by a gust of wind for which he didn’t properly adjust.
“When an emergency happens, you do what you’re trained to do,” he said. “Ninety percent of flight training is for emergencies. You try to correct for it, I just didn’t correct for it accordingly.”
Humphrey credited Cordell’s first responders for saving his life immediately after the accident.
“As everyone saw from the pictures of the plane, they could have easily assumed I was dead, but they didn’t,” he said. “As far as I can tell, they jumped right in there as quickly and safely as they could and got me out of a situation they really hadn’t trained for. The fact that I’m still alive really speaks for itself.”
Humphrey said at the moment he is just looking forward to getting back to work with the colleagues who saved his life.