L
ALAN HITSKY ASSOCIATE EDITOR
ast
month,
Stanley Her-
Her-
man danced his
way through
the Mediterranean
for a mere $1,500. He
figures it would have
cost an additional
$7,000 if he had paid
full price for his 22-
day luxury cruise.
It was the second
time in the last four
years that the semi-
retired Southfield in-
surance agent served
as a dance host on a
cruise ship. And he
doesn't claim to be
Arthur Murray.
man,
e ,ri ght . with fellow dance host Paul
Mr. Herman was Stanley Herm
hired as a dance Pauley in Ath
partner for single women, or mar- how to dance in high school.
ried women whose husbands are "They don't expect you to be a pro,
non-dancers. "We are supposed but you should be more than
to make the passengers happy passable."
and eager to cruise again. But
He said many of the passen-
there's no hanky-panky," he said. gers aboard ship are elderly and
Offending staff would be taken can't do the more difficult dances.
off the ship at the next port of call
His experience in 1991 aboard
and would have to pay their own the Royal Viking on an Atlantic
fare home.
cruise helped pave the way for
Mr. Herman sailed on Sun his Stella Solaris experience.
Lines' Stella Solaris from Athens, Four years ago, he paid his own
Greece. During the 22-day cruise, airfare to Coral Gables, Fla., for
the ship made 11 stops, includ- an interview "and they even sent
me to Arthur
Murray (Dance
Studios) to be
checked out."
This time, he
paid $620 to
Sun Lines and
senior-citizen
air rates to
Athens, and
from Ft. Laud-
erdale to De-
troit. "But that
The Stella Solaris.
was a $7,000
cabin I was
ing
ice, Casablanca, Ma- staying in" aboard ship.
jorca, :1.0on, Gibraltar, St.
During the cruise, Ayl,
Thomai•Aiiclan Juan, before_ man went 0-066610:while:in
finishing the journey at Ft. Laud- port and played bridge aboard
erdale. . . ship. He.-",asfexcited to earn his
Four years ago, Mr:Berman first bridgeInaster's points dur-
performed the same jOb after be- ing two tournaments on the Stel-
ing recommended by a friend la Solaris. :
who is a travel agent. This time;: "Actually;h6, said it was 95
a friend in Ft. Ladder-dale called '- points, but -niy' partner and I
him after seeing an advertise made a 7-no-trump double, and
ment for the job.
that's a rarity." His bridge part-
Mr. Herman, at 75, was the ner during the voyage was a ter-
oldest of three dance hosts on the minally ill cancer patient.
Stella Solaris. The youngest was
Mr. Herman has been a mem-
53.
ber of Temple Israel's Singles Ex-
The men danced with women tension Group for 7 1/2 years,
passengers before and after din- since the death of his wife Mari-
ner and before and after each lyn. He has headed SEG's bowl-
evening's entertainment.
ing, bridge and poker groups, but
"I can do the rhumba, a fair keeps dancing — and cruises —
cha-cha and some fast dancing," in the back of his mind.
said Mr. Herman, who learned
❑
Falling From The Sky
Farmington Hills engineer Elliot Rappaport recounts the emergency
landing of a plane he piloted.
PHIL JACOBS EDITOR
E
lliot Rappaport was sitting
in his comfortable Farm-
ington Hills family room
watching a surreal video. It
certainly isn't everyone who can
watch a video of himself crash-
landing an airplane and then be-
ing rescued.
On the television screen was
the image of a man, sitting in his
bass boat and reeling in a fishing
line on a perfectly still gray lake
with trees in full-green bloom
marking the horizon.
The only noise to be heard was
the sound of an airplane engine
somewhere overhead. But then,
that sound noticeably stalled and
there was quiet.
The camera that was focused
on the fisherman shifted over a
ridge of trees. There, with wings
dipping from side to side and
heading into the lake was a sin-
gle-engine Bellanca with the
markings N93572 on its wing. It
crash-landed, sending debris out
in its wake. The alarmed fisher-
man and the cameraman, who
were filming an outdoors seg-
ment for CBS, brought in the
fishing line and headed toward
the crash.
Mr. Rappaport was the pilot of
the plane. The location was Pon-
tiac Lake on a warm July 29,
1994, morning. The plane was
800 feet away from takeoff from
Pontiac Airport when the fuel
pump malfunctioned, causing the
engine to quit.
Mr. Rappaport, his son-in-law
Armando Duer, and a friend,
Menashe Shemesh, were on the
way to an Experimental Aviation
Association show in Oshkosh,
Wis.
On the video, neighbors from
nearby White Lake waded into
the shallow water, helping to get
the two passengers out of the
plane before EMS could arrive.
Mr. Rappaport, the last to be re-
moved, had blood on his face as
officials removed him from the
wreckage.
He doesn't remember any-
thing of what he watches. All
three men suffered spinal-cord
injuries from the crash. Mr. Rap-
paport clicks off the video.
On a cold, wintry Detroit Tues-
day, the day when a plane car-
rying a pilot and a weather
reporter fatally crashed in Cleve-
land, Mr. Rappaport has no trou-
ble remembering what led up to
his crash- landing.
Three weeks ago, Mr. Rappa-
port, a member of Beth Achim in
Southfield, celebrated the 50th
anniversary of his bar mitzvah
by chanting the Haftorah to
Vayechi. When he approached
the bimah, he had to use a cane.
Hardly bad, however, when
one considers what the alterna-
tives could have been.
Mr. Rappaport has been flying
since 1965. He says that a pilot
is trained, if he has sufficient al-
titude, to emergency-land and
walk away from the landing site.
When there is low altitude with
little time to think, a lake is
sometimes the best option.
A key to the three surviving
the crash was Mr. Duer's pres-
ence of mind to open the plane's
only door prior to going down. If
the door was shut, the pressure
from the water could have im-
peded their rescue.
Mr. Duer, 38, a software en-
gineer and computer consultant
from West Bloomfield, said he
wasn't surprised by Mr. Rappa-
port's calm demeanor during the
entire situation.
PHOTO BY DANIEL LIPPITT
Southfield Man Trips
The Light Fantastic
Elliot Rappaport: Remembering his crash-landing.
Mr. Rappaport had more to
think about that day in July. He
and his passengers originally
took off at 8 a.m. They had to re-
turn to Pontiac, using a hand-
held radio, however, when the
plane's electrical system failed
over Lansing. Still, with the
plane's engine system still work-
ing, it could fly.
Two hours later, electrical
system working, Mr. Rappaport
took off again. He said in about
a minute, he had climbed to 800
feet and was heading west from
Pontiac when the engine sput-
tered to stop.
"I had to look for a place to put
down the plane," he said. "I
didn't have time for anything
else."
No, he didn't see his life flash-
ing before his very eyes. No, he
didn't look out and see an angel
on his wing. He found a place to
land, in a hurry, and chose that
option.
"A plane doesn't just drop
when it doesn't have power," he
said. "I was gliding. And as long
as you can go forward, there is
lift. So, I put the nose down into
a glide. Every landing is accom-
plished with reduced power.
There was no question in my
mind that I could make this
landing."
"Itraining is a big advantage,"
said Mr. Duer, himself a pilot.
"A big part of learning to fly is
learning to handle an emer-
gency situation. You have a
problem, you do things auto-
matically. For me, opening the
plane door came from instinct
and training. I didn't have to
think about it."
Mr. Duer was sitting in the
right cockpit seat. He said his
temptation was to grab the con-
trols, but he said that would
have been disastrous.
Mr. Rappaport said he had to
rely on the video to remember
anything following impact, be-
cause he cannot recall being res-
cued. He was taken to Pontiac
Osteopathic Hospital and then
sent to University of Michigan
Hospital by helicopter. He was
hospitalized for seven weeks. He
suffered a fractured vertebrae,
lost movement in his left leg and
could not walk. He had chemi-
cal burns on his back.
But his determination,
surgery and physical therapy
have seen him go from a wheel-
chair to the use of two canes,
and now, down to one cane. Also,
the movement has returned in
his left leg.
FALLING page 16