ORLANDO, Fla. — A beloved doctor who lied about pilot exams avoided federal prison after supporters recounted his otherwise outstanding background and his bravery when a small plane crashed at his fly-in community in east Volusia County last year.

Dr. Robert William Kurrle, 72, risked his life to rescue two friends after their experimental, amateur-built Swearingen SX-300 crashed while landing in his neighborhood, the Spruce Creek Fly-In community in Port Orange, on July 5, 2018, his friends and attorney said before his sentencing last month.

“Without his efforts both people would have burned alive in the plane and likely others would have been seriously injured while trying to help,” friend David Baldwin, Jr. wrote in a petition to a federal judge in Orlando.

The pilot, 61-year-old John D. Wilson Jr., died from his injuries July 11, 2018 at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

The passenger, then 35-year-old Matthew Simmons, was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach with non-life-threatening injuries.

One of the first on the scene, Kurrle led an impromptu team of onlookers-turned rescuers and directed a tough extraction of the two victims before fire engulfed the crumpled aircraft.

Baldwin said Kurrle’s selfless reaction to the crash was just one example of his friend’s true nature, standing in stark contrast to the negative image detailed in court documents filed against the retired ophthalmologist in May.

A Humiliated Felon

Federal authorities accused him of falsely certifying thousands of commercial and private pilot medical examinations.

Kurrle cooperated with federal investigators and fully accepted responsibility after realizing of his failure to properly approve pilots as an aviation medical examiner, a court filing said.

“He has had his Aviation Medical Examiner privileges taken away, and as a convicted felon faces the loss of his medical license,” his attorney, Michael Salnick of West Palm Beach, wrote in a 20-page petition seeking no prison time. “Notwithstanding his overwhelming support, he has suffered (because of his own conduct) embarrassment, humiliation and further health issues.”

Kurrle pleaded guilty in July to three counts of making false, fictitious or fraudulent statements after an undercover operation revealed he medically cleared pilots without any or adequate examinations.

He faced as much as five years for each count for a potential 15 years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell sentenced Kurrle on Sept. 23, imposing five years of probation, levying a $100,000 fine and adding a $300 special assessment.

How an Undercover Sting Operation Caught The Doctor

Kurrle additionally paid the government $441,000.

Of that, $392,805 was repaid to the feds for a portion of the fees he charged for the failed exams. The remaining $48,818 reimbursed the FAA for the cost to retest pilots.

Kurrle performed about 3,814 medical examinations from January 1, 2017 to February 28, 2019 at Spruce Creek Flight Physicals, a business he founded in 2001.

After the undercover sting, Kurrle estimated as many as 75 percent of those exams didn’t meet FAA guidelines.

Federal agents posing as pilots needing exams documented multiple shortcomings in Kurrle’s evaluations during one undercover operation in August 2018 and two others in November 2018.

“What happened here was clearly an aberration from an otherwise clean ethical and law abiding life,” his attorney wrote.

His petition outlined Kurrle’s lifetime of personal, professional and academic achievements, as well as his community service work.

A licensed pilot, Kurrle earned a master’s degree in engineering and a medical degree, raising two extraordinarily successful sons while married to wife Roseann for more than 40 years.

Kurrle’s behavior wasn’t intentional, his attorney wrote.

Why he did it, though, has never been fully explained in court documents.

His Friends Suffered From Plane Crash

His attorney outlined Kurrle’s successes as a husband, father, pilot, civic leader, engineer and ophthalmologist.

He also noted Kurrle’s failing health and recent personal tragedies, including an April 2018 Rottweiler attack and the July 2018 plane crash.

“The plane went up in flames upon impact,” his attorney wrote. “He was initially unable to open the cockpit and momentarily watched his friends burn.”

After he and others pried open the canopy, Kurrle first pulled out the passenger, Simmons, who suffered foot burns. Then Kurrle pulled out Wilson, who sustained second- and third-degree burns to the lower half of his body.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Wilson's failure to maintain adequate airspeed during landing probably caused the crash. That led to “an aerodynamic stall and hard landing, which resulted in a landing gear collapse, loss of directional control, and runway excursion,” the NTSB said.

Wilson, who was trapped inside the burning wreckage for more than five minutes, was airlifted to ORMC.

“Sadly, he died five days later,” his attorney wrote. “Being the last person to speak to him has haunted Dr. Kurrle on a regular basis.”