Thankfully, Michigan basketball former player and now student-assistant Austin Hatch was not on the plane that crashed through a fence, crossed a street and ended up in a ditch upon takeoff last Wednesday. The two-time plane crash survivor stayed home for school-related activities while his teammates went through their own ordeal on the way to the Big Ten Tournament in Washington D.C., avoiding tragedy with just cuts and bruises.
Hatch lost his entire family in two different small plane crashes, barely surviving the second one. Head coach John Beilein honored his scholarship, of course, and Hatch was able to get into a few games and score as a freshman before moving to medical scholarship the following year, an incredible comeback story.
Hatch continues to recover. He is in love, he told People Magazine recently, and he will be featured on People's 'Heroes and Survivors' ABC TV show tonight at 10 p.m.
Hatch lost his mother and two siblings in a 2003 plane crash in Fort Wayne, Indiana, that he and his father survived. In June 2011, he was the lone survivor of another plane crash in Charlevoix, Michigan that killed his father, Stephen, 46, an anesthesiologist, and stepmother, Kim.
He's got good news these days. He plans to marry former Michigan volleyball player Abby Cole after he graduates next year.
“I’m in love ... I can’t imagine losing Abigail now,” he told PEOPLE. “She’s made me grow in my faith and made me a better man.
"My faith has been tested a little bit… I don’t think God made it happen [the two crashes], but he let it happen … But it’s like, if he stopped every bad thing from happening, what would the world be like?”
Hatch has been giving inspirational speeches about his ordeal and recovery.
“Ultimately my goal in life is to be a great husband and a great father and provide for my family,” he says. "My dad taught me how to take care of a woman, how to love a woman, how to love my family. He taught me to do that by showing me how he did it every day.”
He's endured a lot, he said, but still considers himself "very, very blessed."
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