Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 6, 1991                   TAG: 9102060642
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GREENSBORO, N.C.                                LENGTH: Medium

GALAX PILOT CRASH-LANDS PLANE

Harold Phipps of Galax, Va., received minor injuries when he brought his plane down just behind a USAir DC-9 and crashed on the main runway at Piedmont Triad International Airport. One witness said the plane missed the tail of the DC-9 by about 10 feet.

Arlene Salac, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said that Phipps was flying a Piper Cherokee 180 when he entered airspace controlled by the tower.

Phipps made no attempt to communicate with the tower, she said.

USAir Flight 497 had just been cleared to land on the same runway by the airport's air-traffic controllers. The flight from Washington to Greensboro had 37 passengers and five crew members on board.

The DC-9 made its final approach and landed, Salac said. Phipps brought his plane down behind the DC-9. His plane was caught in the jet's wake and he lost control of the plane. When his plane landed, its landing gear crumpled and it slid off the runway.

David Shipley, a spokesman for USAir, said none of the passengers or crew members said they saw the plane.

Preston Hicks, the chief of the National Transportation Safety Board's field office in Atlanta, said in a telephone interview that the control tower first pinpointed where the plane was when a controller saw it from the tower. The safety board is directing the investigation of the accident, which will probably take several months, he said.

A controller told the USAir pilot about the small plane but told him to continue with his landing. Exactly how close the two planes were when they landed is under investigation, Hicks said.