From: bcoleman@hayes.com (Bill Coleman)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: Newspaper reports: Overloaded Cherokee Crash
Date: 26 Aug 92 10:28:08 EDT
Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

One Killed, Four Injured in Gwinnett Plane Crash

A single-engline plane built to carry four passengers but loaded with five
crashed during takeoff just off the north runway at Briscoe field in Gwinnett 
County today, killing one and injuring four others.

Initial reports from investigators with the NTSB indicated that the 1962 Piper 
Cherokee's engine may have failed on takeoff. [bill - and I have a nice bridge
for sale, too]

"The pilot said the engine quit," said Preston Hicks and NTSB investigator. 
"But that has yet to be confirmed." Investigators said they will focus part of 
their probe on why five passengers were aboard the four-seater.

The crash at about 5:30am ocurred in the foggy darkness next to the 6,000 foot 
runway 25. 

The plane crumpled into the grass only 30 yards from the side of the runway. 
Its torn right wing, believed to have been ripped off by the impact, was 
resting 30 feet away from the wreckage.

A pair of Critical Care Transport emergency medical technicians were answering 
an amulance call from their headquarters near the runway when they spotted a 
dazed man sitting on the curb of a nearby road.

"We pulled over and he said there had been a crash," said cardiac technician 
Michael Thomas. "He was dazed and said another woman was on the other side of 
the [Critical Care] building."

He and partner Jaye Robbins assisted the pair, called for Gwinnett emergency 
vehicles and began patrolling the darkened runway.

The four treated were: Michael Sweeney, 21; Rachel Fowler, 22; Martha Fowler
Maynard, 22; and David Maynard, 20; all of Stone Mountain.

All were in stable condition, but were undergoing testing, said Cheryl
Iverson, spokeswoman for Gwinnett Medical Center. Officials refused to
identify the person who died in the crash or the pilot.

[A couple of notes: The paper also included a map of the crash, erroneously
 pointing out a spot in the middle of Lawrenceville Industrial park, about
 a mile off the end of Runway 25. The crash was however, entirely on the
 airport. David Maynard was later identified as the pilot. The NTSB also
 put the engine of the Cherokee 160 on a test stand, and it ran fine.]

--

From the Gwinnett Daily News [sadly, now defunct]:

1 Dead, 4 Hurt in Plane Crash
> The plane was flown by a 20-year-old student pilot.

Lawrenceville - A plane flown by a student pilot with only 7 hours of flight 
training crashed just after takeoff early Wednesday from the Gwinnett County 
Airport, killing one and injuring four.

The downed craft was found about 5:20am after two of the victims walked some
2,000 yards across the field in the pre-dawn fog and stopped a passing 
ambulance. They said the plane had crashed about an hour earlier.

The pilot, 20-year-old David Maynard of Stone Mountain, said the engine on the 
single-engine Piper Cherokee airplane stalled when the craft was some 100 feet 
off the ground. The plane veered right and the right wing struck the ground 
just north of the runway and broke off. The craft rolled and landed upright 
about 100 feet from the runway.

The impact killed the passenger in the front right seat. The victim's name was 
withheld late Wednesday pending notification of his wife.

Maynard and the other three passengers were taken to Gwinnett Medical Center. 
The other victims were the pilot's wife, 20-year-old Martha Fowler Maynard, 
Stone Mountain; Michael Sweeney, 21, of Covington; and Rachel Fowler, 22, of 
Stone Mountain. They were each listed in stable condition Wednesday, with 
Sweeney a patient in a regular hospital ward and the others in the intensive 
care unit, hospital spokeswoman Allison Birdwell said. 

There were no other witnesses to the crash. Takeoffs and landings at the 
Gwinnett airfield are handled with automatic safety equipment at the airport 
and no other pilots or airport personnel were at the facility. [I think this 
is a veiled reference to the PATWAS (sic)] Nearby workers and residents said 
they did not hear or see the plane go down.

After the crash, Maynard stayed with the plane, but Sweeney and Ms. Fowler, 
pulled free of the wreck and walked off in search of help, said Gwinnett 
Public Safety Department spokesman Frank Daniell.

They crossed the strip and a cleared grassy field to the Airport Industrial 
Boulevard where they were found my Michael Thomas, a cardiac specialist with 
Critical Care, Inc., a private ambulance service with offices just across the 
runway from the wreck.

"We just happened up on it," he said. "Nobody else knew it was down."

Jaye Robbins, an emergency medical technician with the ambulance service, said 
Sweeney was sitting on the median as they drove up, while Ms. Fowler was lying 
on the ground.

"They were very confused, they couldn't tell us what had happened," he said.
"They couldn't remember anything before the crash."

Steve Howard, night dispatcher for the ambulance service, said the company's 
pilot ran to his helicopter, activated the runway lights and other ambulance 
crews began a search of the field for the wreck.

Gwinnett firefighters and emergency medical workers arrived and joined the 
search. Maynard had apparently just left work from a pizza restaurant on 
Covington Highway and was taking friends for a short flight around the 
airport, said Daniell. 

"He was just going up to make maneuvers and had no destination," said Daniell.

Maynard's father-in-law, Gary Fowler of Stone Mountain, said he had no idea 
his son-in-law and daughters were going up in the aircraft early Wednesday 
morning.

"I don't know why they all decided to get on the plane. It's a mystery," said 
Fowler. One of his daughters told him Maynard had just taken off when the 
crash occurred.

Fowler said it wasn't unusual for Maynard to fly early in the morning, after 
he finished work.

"He was excited about flying, period. Eventually, he wanted to get his 
commercial license," Fowler said.

Maynard is a student pilot without authorization to fly solo or to fly 
passengers, according to Preston Hicks of the NTSB. The NTSB and officials 
with the FAA are investigating the wreck.

Hicks said it was possible that Maynard had been cleared elsewhere to fly 
solo, but records at Briscoe Field indicated he had not been. "A great deal 
more of investigation needs to be done," said Hicks.

Five people were in the four-passenger plane, but Hicks said the weight likely 
did not exceed the limit for the craft.

Three were seated on a bench designed for two in the back, said Hicks. It is 
not known whether seat belts were used. The aircraft was not equipped with 
shoulder harnesses, officials said.

Daniell said there was no idication alcojol was involved in the wreck.

Airport Manager Scott Fuller said it was unlikely that the relatively light 
fog across the airfield was a factor in the wreck. He said the runway lighting 
and other safety sustems were working at the time.

However, Hicks said federal regulations require that a flight plane must be 
filed when visibility is less than three miles. Visibility at the time of the 
crash was about a mile and a half, and there was no record of a flight plan, 
Hicks said.

Records at the airport showed the plane had 35 to 40 gallons of fuel - enough 
to fly three or four hours - in it Sunday, the last time it was checked at 
Briscoe, officials said. However, Hicks said he was unsure whether the plane 
had been flown since Sunday.

Maynard was undergoing surgery Wednesday afternoon and had not been 
interviewed by investigators.

Aiport officials were unsure of the time the plane went down. Howard said his 
crews were the last to use the field, just after midnight. 

The fatality was the first at the airport since the new runway and the 
automated pilot systems were activated last year, Fuller said.

The crash also was the first involving a death at Briscoe Field since 1982, 
when Lawrenceville pilot Franklin A. Buchanan died while attempting to land in 
an intense thunderstorm. The plane missed the runway, clipped some trees and 
crashed beside Cedars road off Georgia Highway 316.


-- 
Bill Coleman, AA4LR                ! CIS: 76067,2327    AppleLink: D1958
Principal Software Engineer        ! Packet Radio: AA4LR @ W4QO
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Disclaimer: "My employer doesn't pay me to have opinions."
Quote: "The same light shines on vineyards that makes deserts." -Steve Hackett.