Markle Sparks wonders to this day, 47 years after the fateful event, what the hell a duck was doing at 21,000 feet. Captain Sparks was piloting an eastbound Western Airlines Electra at that lofty altitude somewhere between Elko and Battle Mountain, Nev., in July of 1962 when the unprecedented avian encounter occurred. When the stewardess reported an “explosion” at the rear of the plane, he radioed ahead and prepared for a landing in Salt Lake City.

Fortunately, Sparks landed his plane and passengers safely, but the deafening impact clearly proved fatal for the hapless high-altitude duck. The plane sustained a football-sized dent in the tail and was promptly grounded. The bird, posthumously identified from a single feather left behind as a mallard, established a new world altitude record for ducks.

Bird strikes are no laughing matter (witness the recent “Miracle on the Hudson”), but Sparks, at the well-seasoned age of 93, still can’t stifle a chuckle when he tells his story. He’s shared it many times since he retired to Park City in 1975 after a distinguished 34-year career with Western and Delta airlines.

In his ninth decade, and in spite of the ravages of time, Sparks remains active, curious and quick to laugh. He loves to tell stories and, having lived this long, has lots of stories to tell.

Sparks seemed destined to fly since he first caught sight of an airplane soaring high over his house in Oklahoma City. “It was 1919 and I guess I was about four years old,” he recalls. “My dad said I told him right then I wanted to fly.”

Airplanes, in fact, seemed to be stalking Sparks. “I was 10 years old when a Curtis Jenny crashed in a tree right behind our house,” he says. “I remember going outside and watching the pilot climb down the tree. He didn’t have a scratch on him, but it sure was funny to see a plane stuck up in that tree.”

Sparks was just 12 years old when Charles Lindberg made his historic flight, an event that further fueled his burning desire to become a pilot.

After high school he studied at the University of Oklahoma, taking a bachelor’s degree in business. While there he trained in the Reserve Officers Training Corps to become an Army artillery officer, but failed the rigorous physical.

Instead, Sparks was assigned in 1937 to the Civilian Aeronautics Authority, a fledgling federal agency which would later change its name to the Federal Aviation Administration. There, his childhood wish was fulfilled. “I learned to fly while with the CAA and got my private, commercial and instructors ratings with them,” he says.

During World War II, Sparks was assigned to Western Airlines and sent to Alberta, Canada. Based out of Edmonton, he flew DC-3 passenger flights across the frozen reaches of western Canada and Alaska to remote outposts like Point Barrow and Nome. “That was just a cover story for the real job, which was to fly Washington officials and military brass out to Nome for top-secret meetings with the Russians,” he reveals.

After the war, Sparks settled with his wife and growing family in Los Angeles, far from his Oklahoma roots. His grown children Sally, Sidney and Steven, and foster son, Michael are strewn throughout the country. His marriage, however, did not survive.

During his career he piloted a succession of airliners that mirrored the evolution of air travel in the United States, from twin engine DC-3s to the first Boeing 707 jetliners.

Traveling the world, Sparks developed an ear for classical music and an eye for fine art, both of which he retains today. When he was home, he never missed an opportunity to pull his sons out of school for a day of fishing on the Pacific. He proudly displays old black-and-white photos of the boys and their catches. “I figure they learned as much on those days as they would have in school,” he says.

Never tiring of things that fly, Sparks began building and flying radio-controlled (RC) model airplanes in the mid-1950s when the hobby was in its infancy. His passion for the hobby would later take him halfway around the world during the Glasnost years.

Sparks took up skiing in his late 50s and had been making trips to Park City for a few years before buying two units at the newly-constructed Treasure Mountain Inn in 1967. He retired here in 1975. In the years that followed he played the real-estate game, eventually building and settling into a spacious, comfortable Ranch Place home in the 1990s. Paintings collected from around the world adorn the walls.

In 1998, Sparks seized an opportunity to travel to Russia to share his passion for RC aircraft with flyers from around the world. While there, he reconnected with a Russian pilot he’d met over 40 years before during the war. The event was chronicled, with photos, in The Park Record.

Some might call the 90s the twilight years. But Sparks, still a very busy man, doesn’t see it that way. He spends his days on his computer, corresponding with friends or surfing the net. He’s downloaded an impressive library of classical music to his iPod and is looking forward to flying one of his RC model airplanes this spring. He also has a “to-do” list: “to see Pompeii one more time and to live a spell in Barcelona.”

Simply put, Markle Sparks is a very nice man who brightens and enriches the lives of those around him. Everyone except, of course, the duck.

Steve Phillips is a Park City-based writer and actor. Send your profile comments and suggestions to him at [email protected]

VITAL STATISTICS

Favorite things to do: Google and email: fly RC airplanes; listen to classical music

Favorite foods: Steak

Favorite music: Classical

Animal companions: “Felix and Cali, two very intelligent, adopted cats, age unknown.”