WATCH: Two-Time Plane Crash Survivor Austin Hatch Gets Rousing Ovation For First Basket With Wolverines
By Dan Jenkins
@DanTJenkins
ANN ARBOR (CBS Detroit/AP) -- Austin Hatch, a high school basketball standout who survived a plane crash in Michigan in 2011 that killed his father and stepmother, was welcomed into the Michigan Wolverine basketball family on Monday night.
The Wolverines hosted Wayne State at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor for an exhibition game. Michigan led 83-41 with 1:40 to play when coach John Beilein subbed Hatch in for his first collegiate action.
Hatch stepped to the free throw line late in the game as the crowd quietly awaited his attempts. He missed the first, to a collective groan. But sent the second one down with ease, bringing the U-M faithful to their feet for a thunderous applause.
Hatch was 16-years-old when he suffered a serious head injury, punctured lung and rib injuries in the June 24, 2011 crash. His father was flying when the plane struck a garage in a neighborhood near the Charlevoix Municipal Airport. The family had been on their way to their summer home on Walloon Lake in Michigan's northwestern Lower Peninsula.
That 2011 crash was the second plane crash that Hatch survived. He and his father lived through a 2003 crash that killed Hatch's mother and two siblings. His father was flying then, too. A 2005 federal report found inaccurate preflight planning resulted in the plane not having enough fuel.
Hatch signed with the Wolverines last November.
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