Two Western Washington air traffic controllers are being recognized nationally after they helped guide a pilot dangerously low on fuel through cloudy northwest skies and to a safe landing.

Over the radio, 68-year-old pilot Jim Lawson, of Wyoming, didn’t know just how much help he would need flying his Mooney M20C. He was flying from the east into the Puget Sound area about a month and a half ago, and the four-seater was low on fuel with seemingly nowhere to land.

“Everything was overcast and socked-in,” air traffic controller Ken Greenwood said.

Lawson told Greenwood he was out of practice flying by instruments only, so Greenwood and fellow air traffic controller Ryan Herrick did what they could.

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“When he decided it was a good time to come down, we decided to send him down into the clouds,” Greenwood said.

But halfway down, he was blinded by a wall of white.

“Tango, I just ran out of fuel,” Lawson said over the radio.

Both fuel tanks in Lawson’s plane were empty, and he was gliding at 5,000 feet.

Lawson was originally headed for the airport in Arlington, but Greenwood and Herrick re-routed Lawson south, toward Renton airport. Things got tense en route.

“I can’t see anything,” Lawson said over the radio.

“The thought did go through my mind this could be the day I leave this earth,” Lawson told KIRO 7’s Jeff Dubois in a Skype conversation from Wyoming on Thursday.

Lawson said the controllers were calmly giving him instructions when the plane suddenly broke out of the clouds at 2,000 feet. All Lawson saw were houses, and he worried about killing people on the ground.

Greenwood helped him locate the runway at Renton Airport.

“I didn’t know what runway it was, but I didn’t really care,” Lawson said. “I just wanted a runway.”

With safety in sight, Lawson radioed back to the controllers.

“You know what? You just saved my life,” he said.

“Anytime, sir,” was the reply.

But Lawson was coming in low and was headed straight for the 15-foot checkered thrust barrier at the south end of the runway.

“I’m sure it looked a hundred feet tall to him when he was coming over it,” Greenwood said.

Somehow, one of Lawson’s engines fired back up at the last second.

“Maybe a coffee cup of fuel ran back to the pickup line when I leveled it out, and it gave me just enough to get me over that thrust barrier,” Lawson said.

He landed safely.

Now, Greenwood and Herrick have won an award from the national Air Traffic Controllers Association for their work.

“I am so thankful. I am so happy these guys are going to be recognized for what they do,” Lawson said.

Greenwood and Herrick are leaving next week to be honored with the Archie League Award, which is named after the man considered being the first air traffic controller. Only 15 of the awards are given each year.