Cathay pilot who lost foot is reaching for the sky
Cathay Pacific pilot Scott McDonald is restless to fly again despite a motorcycle accident in Phuket that cost him the lower portion of his right leg.
The 43-year-old, who lives on a boat in Sai Kung and has a second boat moored on the Thai holiday island, is recovering in a Phuket hospital - anxiously awaiting delivery of a copy of the book Reach for the Sky, which relates the story of Douglas Bader, a legless pilot who fought in the Battle of Britain during the second world war.
'Everything I have been told has been encouraging and there is no reason why I should not be able to fly again for Cathay,' Senior First Officer McDonald, who flies Boeing 777s, said from his bed.
Among his regular visitors has been a Swedish prosthetics manufacturer who has just opened a business in Phuket and who assured the pilot he would get a first-rate replacement right foot on the island.
Golf, along with flying, sailing and motorcycles, remain the passions of the pilot, who joined Cathay from US Airways and whose original hometown is Chicago.
When McDonald's mobile phone rang as he was riding his Harley- Davidson back to his boat at Yacht Haven soon after midnight on January 24, he did the right thing and pulled over before taking the call.
Out of the dark came a speeding Honda motorcycle that almost severed his foot as it passed. 'I was knocked into the middle of the road and I remember crawling back over to the side,' he said. 'It was so loud, I thought it was a car that hit me.'
On the other end of the phone, his girlfriend, Wan, who had called to ask how far he was away from returning to the boat, heard his screams of agony. A passerby stopped long enough to pick up the phone, tell Wan what had happened and where - and then rode off, with the telephone.
'Fortunately I was in hospital within 10 minutes,' McDonald said.
Doctors said he had the choice of having an attempt made to repair the damage, or amputation. Their recommendation, because of the possibility of infection, was to amputate.
There is no timetable for recovery. McDonald simply has to wait until the skin around his severed leg is capable of bearing his weight in a prosthetic foot. He hopes that will not be long and is looking forward to learning to walk before he can fly again.
It is believed the pillion passenger on the other motorcycle escaped serious injury but the rider is still in another hospital in Phuket. The island has a reputation for motorcycle accidents.
An enthusiastic golfer, McDonald is also anxious to return to the sport. 'I am hoping to be back on the golf course within three to four months and back in the cockpit in, I guess, five to six months,' he said, although he said he realised the process of being declared fit to fly might take longer.
There are no rules preventing people with prosthetic limbs from working as commercial airline pilots and McDonald said that with the 777s's controls, he needed only light pressure from his foot for rudder control and braking during taxiing.
He praised Cathay Pacific for the 'tremendous' support and encouragement it had given him since his accident and said Alan Burge, flight crew relations manager for the 777 fleet, visited him in hospital last week.
McDonald said he remembered shortly after joining Cathay Pacific meeting an American Airlines pilot who had two prosthetic legs and was on his way to go climbing on Mount Everest. 'Thinking of that gave me quite a positive outlook on my situation,' he said.
Nick Rhodes, Cathay Pacific's director of flight operation, said yesterday: 'The Cathay Pacific Fleet Office has been extremely supportive and we will do everything possible to ensure that Scott has a chance of resuming his flying career.
'The Aviation Medicine Doctors, who report to the Civil Aviation Department, are ultimately in charge of licensing pilots as 'fit to fly' and we will not be able to put Scott back on the flight deck until he is pronounced fit by the CAD. So there is a long road ahead but we will do all we can to assist.'
