The Tribune from Coshocton, Ohio • 9

State Coshocton Tribune Sunday, Aug. 27, 20009A Lake Erie survivors: 'God carried us through' Empty hangar Last of historic planes taken from Ohio History of Flight Museum COLUMBUS (AP) A museum near Port Columbus International Airport dedicated to showing Ohio's role in aviation history is empty. The last of the more than 20 planes in the Ohio History of Flight Museum a 1911 model known as the Headless Pusher was removed last week. The same plane was the first to be displayed at the site in 1981 by aviation pioneer Foster Lane, the museum's founder. Lane died in 1995.

The museum must be vacated by Thursday to make way for the construction of two hotels. It closed June 1. All of the aircraft eventually will be displayed at the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus. The Headless Pusher, built at Norwalk in Huron County by Paul and Josh Wilbur, will be reassembled for display at the center in September. The remaining aircraft are being warehoused at Port Columbus and are expected to be moved to the center in about two years.

Moving the museum exhibits was comparable to moving out of 50 homes at once, said Russ Arledge of the Ohio Historical Society. "I've been at this seven days a week, about eight hours a day sometimes 10 hours a day since July 24," Arledge said. It took him about three hours to remove the engine, tail and wings of the 24-foot-long Headless Pusher, once known as the Curtiss Pusher. Its name was changed after its nose was removed. Michael Harsh, collections facilities manager for the historical society, said moving exhibits from 20,000 square feet of space to a storage facility has been difficult.

"An ideal situation would be to move from one museum to another, not a storage facility that is smaller and more cramped," Harsh said. SANDUSKY (AP) Pointing his binoculars just below where Lake Erie meets the horizon, Matt Cetin spotted what looked like two white flags in the water. "Fishing nets" thought the Coast Guard petty officer. The flags marking commercial fishing nets play tricks on the eyes of rescuers offshore, creating false hopes. Cetin steadied the binoculars as the white objects vanished with each rise and fall of the 3-foot waves.

"They would appear and then disappear until we got closer," he said. "It took me about five seconds to realize what I was looking at" What he had spotted were Nick Sostaric and Matt Stookey two men who survived a terrifying 14 hours floating in Lake Erie and fighting through doubt, depression and hypothermia. "God carried us through what we went through," Sostaric said. "How else can you explain it?" Lost on the lake They had set out July 18 for an evening ride on Sostaric's Jet Ski. He topped off the seven-gallon gas tank at The Dock of the Bay Marina and by 5 p.m., Sostaric, 33, and Stookey, 31, were cruising through Sandusky Bay.

The weather was near perfect. Sunny and 80 degrees. Even better, there were few boats on the lake, which covers an area the size of New Jersey and. Delaware combined. They ran at full throttle, about 35 mph.

As they got into the open water, they jumped wave after wave. They were riding on top of the world, water smacking their faces. "We were out of the water as much as we were in it," Sostaric said. "We went out a lot farther than normal. "I think we were having too much We weren't thinking about how far out we were." Somewhere near the south side of Kelleys Island, Stookey asked, "Where are we going?" Sostaric wasn't sure.

And on a 1990 model Jet Ski with no fuel gauge, he realized he had to get out of the waves and return to a dock to check how much gas was left. But which way should they turn? Sostaric spotted a barge that he thought he had seen earlier that afternoon near cage was uncovered and their dog was in the basement. She went upstairs and saw her husband wasn't in bed. She drove to the marina and saw the Jet Ski was gone. She dropped to her knees.

"I knew right then he was in the water, she said. Trish Sostaric's call to the Coast Guard set off a search that began before daybreak using patrol boats and a helicopter. Soon Trish Sostaric got the call saying the Coast Guard had found the Jet Ski with no sign of the men. "My heart about stopped," she said Sostaric and Stookey were still alive but doubt and depression began setting in as the sky became brighter. They heard the helicopter flying around them.

They pulled off their life jackets and waved them frantically above their heads. But the waves were hiding them. "Here's our chance to be rescued and they're flying away," Sostaric recalled thinking. All that remained was the sea gulls circling above their heads, swooping down at them. "It was like they were waiting for us to die," Sostaric said.

They tried to keep talking but neither was making much sense, he said. Another helicopter came from the Detroit air station along with a boat from the Coast Guard's Marblehead station. "All of us had a gut feeling they were in the area," said Coast Guard petty officer Jason Gale. The 41-foot boat took to the water at 9:18 a.m. It hadn't even reached the search area near where the Jet Ski was found when Cetin made his sighting.

Gale and Cetin, wearing their drab blue uniforms, gave each other a high-five. They got to Stookey first. He told them to get his friend and that he could wait. But Stookey was pulled out first. Sostaric, about 20 feet away, was next in the boat.

Both were pale, their skin was shriveled and clammy. The officers wrapped them in wool blankets. They were in later stages of hypothermia so cold they had stopped shivering, said Petty Officer Mitchell Robida. "I don't think they would've lasted a couple of more hours," Gale said. AP Photo off on a Jet Ski for a day of fun at the Sanduky marina.

The Jet became lost on the lake. Coast the next day suffering from life jackets as a signal. Fliers seek mother of; abandoned newborn i wouldn't figure out until later that he was missing. They kept swimming and floating in their life jackets, a full moon guiding them. "It was so bright," Sostaric said.

"It was like shining a spotlight on us." During the night, they saw lights from Cedar Point and the top of its 310-foot roller coaster. They heard a booming foghorn. But mainly it was quiet. Just the waves slapping them in the face. They stayed close to each other.

They talked about overcoming problems in their lives and how it would be such a waste to give up "Every time we came close to giving up we'd pray," Sostaric said. "We were asking God to take us if he's going to take us now." They were freezing in the 71 degree water. Sostaric had on shorts and a T-shirt, Stookey only shorts. Rescue mission begins Sostaric's wife, Trish, was just getting home from work. She sensed something was wrong when she saw the bird KETTERING (AP) Police have distributed more than 1,000 fliers in their effort to find the mother of a baby that was found outside a home in this Dayton suburb.

"We're not out to get the mother, we just want to make sure she's not hurt," police spokesman Larry Warren said Friday. The child was found Thursday wrapped in white sheets and towels, with his umbilical cord still attached and covered in mucus. "There was little or no blood at the scene, the baby was not harmed or thrown there, so we don't believe the 1P Airport wnra I TEWAT1T T3tg. Nick Sostaric and a friend set on Lake Erie near the seawall Ski ran out of gas when they Guard rescuers found them hypothermia and waving their Cedar Point amusement park. As they got closer, he realized it was a different one and that they were actually moving away from land.

They turned around again, but it was too late. The engine sputtered. They were out of gas, five miles from shore without a flare gun or radio. "We never panicked. We never argued," Sostaric said.

Swimming in hopes of reaching the shore, they took turns pulling the Jet Ski. "I realized we weren't gaining any ground," Sostaric said. "We just kept going farther out. The waves were just pushing us. "We decided to dump the Jet Ski.

It wasn't worth our lives." They started swimming toward trees in the distance. Then they watched the sun disappear behind the water. That's when they knew they were in trouble. "We both looked at each other and thought, 'Nobody knows we're out Sostaric said. He had told his wife he'd be out of the lake, but she was at work and Sizes available from 8x8 up to 16x32 WANTED! Hours: Monday -Friday 8 a.m.- 5 p.m.

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