Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 26, 1990 TAG: 9005260303
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I was mowing and just had moved from where he was at," said Wood, a maintenance worker for the Blue Ridge Parkway, "I heard a commotion, turned, and the plane was in the grass."
The small plane landed in an overlook near Fancy Gap Mountain in Carroll County after its pilot apparently became disoriented in fog.
"It makes you feel kind of funny," Wood said.
For Wood, Friday morning started out as a normal working day in a six-year career with the park service. In addition to mowing, he builds fences and helps maintain campgrounds and picnic areas.
About 11 a.m., the rattle of his mower served as a familiar backdrop as fog hung thick in the air.
Suddenly, Wood heard an unfamiliar sound behind him.
"I first thought it was a car with no muffler," he said.
Wood turned to see the plane skidding across the road and into a hayfield before sliding to a stop in the grassy portion of the overlook he had just mowed. The pilot, whose name Wood could not recall, estimated his landing speed at 140 mph.
"Where am I?" Wood recalls the pilot asking. "He was a little shaken, too."
Soon neighbors came running and called for park rangers and rescue workers.
The pilot was not hurt.
He said he had been dusting for gypsy moths in Pennsylvania and was headed home to Alabama. He got lost in the fog because the plane had no instruments for flying in inclement weather.
The pilot expected to take off again as soon at the weather cleared.
Until then, Wood longs for life away from the fast lane.
"It's normally pretty peaceful here," he says. "Sometimes the excitement is the part you can do without."
by CNB