ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150087
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WHITE HOUSE
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
A RETIRED COUPLE saved a neighboring pilot from a watery death after she crashed into Smith Mountain Lake.
Good gardening weather Tuesday afternoon may be the only reason that Penny Simmons is alive today.
It was mild, clear and slightly windy around 4:45 p.m. when retiree Pat Lunt was planting flowers in her yard on Smith Mountain Lake and heard a loud splash about 75 yards from shore.
"I saw something red out of the corner of my eye and I thought, `Somebody's tipped over their sailboat,''' Lunt said. Then she saw the red tail of an airplane bobbing in the water.
"I thought, `Oh my God, it's Penny.'''
Penny Simmons, a 36-year-old beautician and amateur pilot from Franklin County, is well-known to Lunt. For one thing, she's Lunt's hairdresser. For another, Simmons' vintage red 1957 Piper Cub is a familiar sight in Lunt's subdivision, frequently flying over the lake out of nearby Smith Mountain Lake Airport.
At first, Lunt didn't see Simmons in the water. Then she came bobbing up, struggling against the choppy water to hold onto the plane. Lunt realized Simmons couldn't swim.
"I said, `Hang on. I can't make it to you, hang onto the plane.''' But then the plane started to sink. Lunt told the pilot to float on her back until she could bring help.
Lunt called to her husband, Fred, to get their pontoon boat. He came out running, not knowing what was happening. "The plane was gone," he said. "I never saw it. Penny was out there by herself."
Fred Lunt steered the boat out to where Simmons was floating, but he wasn't strong enough to lift her aboard, so he gave her a rope and towed her to shore, until she was able to climb onto a dock.
"She was very mad, very upset about smashing her little airplane. That was her pride and joy," he said.
Still wearing her gardening gloves, Pat Lunt ran and hugged her newly rescued wet friend, crying for joy.
"She had a white sweater on and she had two big red handprints on her back" from the clay on the gardening gloves, Pat Lunt said.
Volunteers from the Huddleston Life Saving & Rescue Crew later took Simmons to Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where she was treated for cuts and bruises, including a shoulder injured by her seat belt.
Simmons told the Lunts that her plane's engine cut off in midair. After landing in the water, her door jammed shut, but she was able to exit through the front of the plane because the windshield broke away on impact.
Simmons has been flying for about two years, friends said.
The plane sank 45 to 50 feet to the lake bottom and apparently lost a wing, according to radar images. It is not visible from the lake's surface. State Police divers will examine the plane today to determine how best to recover it.
Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown said Simmons can credit the Lunts for saving her life, but Fred Lunt said, "I don't think it was any heroics. It was all my wife. If Pat hadn't seen her, she would have died."
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Fred Lunt.by CNB