Palmdale Man, Assistant Braved Flames to Aid Crash Victims

A Pepperdine University marketing professor fought through flames after the crash of a Singapore Airlines jet in search of the office assistant who helps him run Antelope Valley Christian School in Lancaster.

His arms burned, David L. Ralph, 54, of Palmdale, freed a woman from her seat belt, believing it was Christina Reed of Rosamond, his assistant, but it was a grateful stranger, Ralph’s son said at a news conference Monday.

Meanwhile, Reed, 26, had freed herself and was helping other people escape from the burning wreckage of the crash that killed 81 at Taipei’s Chiang Kai-shek International Airport.

The two probably made their injuries worse by stopping to help others, said Ralph’s son, Sheldon, and a Sherman Oaks surgeon, during the news conference.

Reed had been sitting in Row 50 and Ralph in Row 51 on Wednesday when the plane struck construction equipment on the runway and its hull cracked open, leaving him in one burning side and her in the other.

The two, who had gone abroad to recruit for the school’s international student program, reunited on the tarmac.

They were taken to the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks on Friday and were operated on Monday. Dr. Peter Grossman said that after undergoing reconstructive surgery over 15% of their bodies, Ralph and Reed are expected to recover.

Ralph, who received second- and third-degree burns on his arms, hands, back, face and right leg, founded Antelope Valley Christian School 12 years ago with his wife, Patricia. He also is an associate professor of marketing at Pepperdine University.

Sheldon Ralph of Calabasas said the school and its 380 students from preschool to 12th grade are his parents’ labor of love.

“My father and mother have dedicated their whole lives to helping people,” the son said. “They founded the school, and they don’t take a salary.”

The elder Ralph had been making four or five visits a year to East Asia since 1997 to recruit students for the school’s International Intellectual Exchange, a boarding program that immerses foreign students in American culture, including attending a Lakers game. David would make the trips, and Patricia would stay behind to run the campus, Sheldon said.

Reed joined Antelope Valley Christian School about two years ago, Sheldon said, and she now heads fund-raising efforts. Sheldon Ralph did not know how many times she had accompanied her boss on the weeklong trip to Taiwan.

“She didn’t want to leave the plane without my father,” Sheldon said. “[Firefighters] had to force her to leave the plane.”

Her burns were primarily confined to her arms, hands and face, Grossman said.

The doctor, who operated on both victims, said Reed and Ralph gave similar reports of searching for each other through the chaos on the runway, stopping to help others to safety.

When asked how he felt knowing his father was a hero, Sheldon Ralph responded, “That’s something I’ve known all along. It’s not news to me.”

Psychologists will help Ralph and Reed deal with post-traumatic stress, Grossman said.

They are expected to remain in the hospital for an additional two weeks, undergoing more skin-grafting surgery, he said.