CHANDLER, AZ (AZFamily) — A pilot who survived a terrifying nighttime emergency landing is now meeting face-to-face with the medevac helicopter pilot who helped guide him to safety.
Joe Hatch and Gianni Pigneri reunited at Chandler Municipal Airport on Wednesday. The aviation community is tight-knit. It turns out, Pigneri’s co-worker is Hatch’s neighbor.
The reunion comes about a month after Hatch’s plane went down in the dark during what he described as a sudden engine issue.
A six-minute ordeal in the dark
Hatch said it was about 8:45 p.m. on Friday, May 15, when he heard a pop in his engine while flying toward Chandler—only about eight miles south of the airport…