Scouts Survive Worst Aviation Badge Attempt Ever

Three Boy Scouts and their pilot are alive after their four-seat 1952 Beechcraft crashed yesterday morning in Belen, NM, about two miles from its final destination. Scouts Levi Jensen, Talon Bennett, and Jacob Brooks were flying with a pilot they knew from church as part of the work required for them to earn an aviation badge. "I was really looking forward to it because I never get to go up in a plane," Levi tells KRQE-TV.

The plane left the Belen airport around 10:30am, flew to Albuquerque and was on its way back when the scouts realized something was wrong. They told KRQE-TV that the pilot was calm and focused as he tried to land. "We touched down and half a second later we hit this bush, you can’t see anything, there’s dust everywhere, there’s dust flying into the plane," Jacob tells KRQE-TV. Bad news for the Scouts: They still don't have their aviation badge, as they have other—hopefully less dangerous—requirements to complete. Says Jacob: "I have a story to tell my kids." (More Boy Scouts of America stories.)