by Shelby Curtis |

“He’s a great teacher and tells some very interesting stories,” junior Victor Bissonnette said.

Q: When was the plane crash you were in?

A: It was 1971; in early August when I was right out of high school. I was in Texas at a friend’s dad’s airport that he bought from the military. He let me work there and in return I got free flying lessons.

Q: Were you flying the plane when it crashed, or were you a passenger?

A: It was one of the last flights of my training, coming back from Padre Island and I stopped in Cuero, Texas to fuel up and have them sign my logbook. I only got about 1,700 feet off the ground, then it started coming down tail first.

Q: Do you remember the whole crash?

A: After the plane hit a few trees and spun into a nose dive, I blacked out. The Cuero airport saw the crash and radioed for help. They said I must have crawled out because there were bloody handprints along the side of the plane.

Q: How badly were you injured?

A: I had a pretty bad head injury, but there was a neurosurgeon convention in town, and a Canadian doctor there was asked to operate on me. He stopped them from putting a metal plate in my head because he said it could rust and be dangerous. I guess I was pretty lucky.

Q: Have you flown since then?

A: I actually flew a couple weeks after that back to Illinois. My friend owns three planes so I get to fly them occasionally. I actually got my permit for flying before a permit for driving.

“Mr. Leddy has a unique personality and a lot of interesting life experiences. There is definetely more than meets the eye with him, and he’s great to work with,” Mathematics teacher Joyce Boike said.