Sheet-Rope Breaks; Pilot Falls 4 Floors

A 59-year-old airline pilot dropped four floors today when the bed sheets he tied together broke while he attempted to escape a fire at the Ann Arbor Inn. Northwest OriEnt Airlines Pilot Robert Shotwell said he awoke this morning to j screams of a man and pounding on his seventh-floor door. "Then I started smelling smoke," Shotwell said. Five minutes later the flames were coming in the room under the door. Shotwell broke the window in his room, tied four bedsheets together and I hoisted himself out the window. The sheets broke as soon as he began to lower himself. I The pilot was fortúnate his room faced out over a third floor roof. Following his four-story fall, Shotwell was treated and released in the U-M I Medical Center emergency room. Sitting somewhat dazed in the Ann Arbor Inn's main floor restaurant, Shotwell said he has been in a couple of hotel fires before, but nothing of consequence. When he was caught in an earthquake in Alaska in 1964, it was 10 times worse, he added. . If Not letting his experience düll his sense of humor, Shotwell quipped, "It I just all goes to prove that aviation isn't I safe." He added the airline company has been teaching its pilots about emergency descents. I .' "Nów I know what they mean," Shotwell said. . ' Shotwell, of Coral Cables, Fia. , was I I ly one of the crew members of Northwest staying at the Ann Arbor Inn. Several airlines contract with the Ann Arbor Inn to lodge employés while they are on I over. Shotwell's crew arrived in Ann Arbor about 10:30 p.m. yesterday and were I scheduled to depart from Metropolitan Airport to Washington, D.C., at 4:50 p.m. today. Several Northwest Oriënt stewardesses whose rooms were located near a fire I cape were led to safety by firemen that way. ; Stewardess Linda Quilling, 27, said she woke to the sounds of brealïing glass and I at first thought someone was having a wild party. She had recently seen the disaster movie "The Towering Inferno" about a ' I fire which gutted a combination officeI apartment high rise in San Francisco. I "That's all I could think of," Qüilling 1 I said. least evejídy gáf out all right," Quilling said. When Quilling and her roommate, Tanya Reinstein, 28, returned with others on the seventh floor to piCk up their belongings from their charfed rooms, the response was "Oh, my God, what a mess." Clothes, make up, luggage and personal belongings were soot covered. A lamp shade in their room had melted. "There is no way we can fly today," Reinstein remarked. Throughout much of the seventh floor puddles of water stood on the carpeting; charred, peeled veneer hung on the doors; windows were broken and walls and ceilings were blackèned. Ann Arbor 'firemen rescued eight guests with an aerial ladder. One of those who climbed down seven stories on the ladder was Larry Hacker, 34, a copilot with Shotwell. "The only really bad part was watching the people go down the ladder. I didn't think it was coming to me fast enough," I hè said. Dressed in casual slacks and a beige 1 - - wool pullover sweater, Hacker said, "It's not my idea of a real good day." Edward Mahfuz, a Toledo businessman, was one of the Ann Arbor Inn guests who this morning clustered together in small groups in the restaurant and lobby discussing the fire. Mahfuz, 39, had been staying on the I eighth floor. He woke up to noise, thinking it was caused by youths on the street. Mahfuz said when he opened the window to look out, he saw smoke coming from the seventh floor. The bachelor took time to dress and pack, adding he wouldn't do that again if caught in a fire. He walked down the stairway led by firefighters. Mahfuz was full of praise for Ann Arbor's pólice and fire departments but was critical of what he saw as slow ambulance service. "Thank God the cops were here and made sure everybody got out," Mahfuz said. I Although originally he planned to stay the day, Mahfuz said, 'Tril leaving this morning, I've had enough." ' The stewardess, who has been flying isince 1968, has been in earthquakes in i Anchorage and Tokyo. "But a fire, that really scared me. To i actually see the smoke coming in ... At I