I've told this story before, but hey, here it is again...
One cool, damp, foggy evening I was working at the airport. Not much going on. A small Piper Cherokee type plane comes taxiing in out of the fog and pulls up on the ramp. I go out and park him. I walk around the right side of the plane and a woman opens the door and comes out crying. She's got vomit all over her. She reaches in and pulls out two little kids and gets off the wing. The husband (I assume) comes out last. He's white as a sheet and obviously stressed out. I pointed the woman towards the office and told her there's a couch in there, restroom, water, towels, etc. She thanks me and takes the kids off across the ramp. The pilot asks me to tie it down for the night. I tell him OK and I'll be right in to get his information. He heads towards the office and I tie down the right wing. I head around the front of the plane and as I walk towards the center of the left wing, I see a large dent in the leading edge with pine needles sticking out!
I had to call the FAA. They told me to put a chain on the prop and they'd be out in the morning.
Turns out the guy tried to fly under the fog at a smaller airport south of us without an instrument landing system and, well, he chose poorly. Hit some trees near the airport and somehow managed to pull out of them before they grabbed his plane and pulled it out of the sky. He pushed his luck with his family all to save the hassle of having to get a ride home 30 miles and having to come back to pick up his plane on a later date. Yikes!
The plane had to sit in our shop for several weeks and worse, he almost killed his family.