Tuesday, October 26, 2004
NASCAR air crash victims recovered
The plane owned by Hendrick Motorsports did not have a ground proximity system, a federal investigator said. | Your condolences
Moments later, about 12:30 p.m., the plane crashed into the side of a fog-shrouded mountain, killing all 10 aboard. A seven-person "Go" team with the National Transportation Safety Board spent most of Monday on Bull Mountain's steep, wooded slope, trying to reconstruct the fatal crash. The plane apparently barreled horizontally about 100 feet through trees, leaving a crater where it struck the mountain. The plane's wreckage scattered up the steep slope for about 100 feet and caught fire, said NTSB air safety investigator Brian Rayner.
Investigators still don't know the cause of the crash, he said.
The Beech 200 King Air airplane owned by Hendrick Motorsports was on its way to the Nextel Cup race at Martinsville Speedway. On board were Ricky Hendrick, 24, son of Hendrick Motorsports chief executive officer, Rick Hendrick; John Hendrick, 53, Rick Hendrick's brother and president of Hendrick Motorsports; Jennifer Hendrick and Kimberly Hendrick, twin daughters of John; Jeff Turner, general manager of the team; Randy Dorton, chief of the company's engine program; Scott Lathram, a pilot for NASCAR driver Tony Stewart; Joe Jackson, an executive with DuPont; and company pilots Dick Tracy and Liz Morrison.
Investigators had recovered all of the bodies by 5 p.m. Monday, Rayner said. The bodies were to be taken to the state medical examiner's office in Roanoke. The investigation will resume this morning.
"It's impossible to work up there during hours of darkness. It's unsafe in daytime," Rayner said.
The plane crashed into a densely wooded area about 1 1/2 miles above Bull Mountain Road. Reaching the site involves an hour-long journey by all-terrain vehicle, NTSB authorities said.
Investigators also are looking at air traffic control transmissions and talking to witnesses. The plane did not have a ground proximity system, a flight date recorder or a cockpit voice recorder, Rayner said.
Tim Travis, spokesman for Raytheon Aircraft Co., said a 1981 King Air 200 would not have been equipped with a ground proximity warning system when it was built, but it would be possible that an owner could have such a system installed later.
Two Patrick County men who live about three miles from Bull Mountain Road said they saw the plane before it crashed.
"It came over the house and was low," said Ronnie Foley, 48. He and his neighbor, Tim Cooper, 42, were getting ready to watch the race on television. "It [the plane] was under the clouds." He assumed it was someone associated with the race who had missed the airport on the first pass.
Cooper said that about a half hour later he noticed state police helicopters circling near the mountain. But he didn't think any more of it until news of the crash broke on television.
"This is one of the major things that ever happened around Patrick Springs," Cooper said. "Our heart goes out to everyone who lost a family member, and we hope that they can make it through."
Brian Clark, 33, owner of Bassett-based Carolina Satellite Networks, volunteered to provide broadband service for more than a dozen media outlets staged at the base of Bull Mountain Road. Clark, whose company does business with NASCAR teams, remembered going to races at the Martinsville Speedway when he was 5 or 6 years old. "It's just another tragedy for NASCAR. It really is. Our thoughts and prayers go with the family. What more can you say?"
Sunday's crash wasn't the first such tragedy on Bull Mountain. "This mountain claimed a couple of people, a couple planes in the past," said Danny Turner, 48, of Martinsville.
In November 2000, a small plane crashed into the mountain, killing its pilot, a Maryland man.
On March 16, 1944, 11 men were killed when an Army plane based out of Charleston, S.C., crashed into the mountainside. A memorial to those killed in the crash, in the shape of a plane's propeller blade, still stands on the mountain, residents said.
Staff writer Lindsey Nair and
news researcher Belinda Harris
contributed to this report.
