Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 5, 1991 TAG: 9104050669
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MERION, PA. LENGTH: Medium
The twin-engine plane carrying Heinz, R-Pa., from a news conference in Williamsport collided with a helicopter above Merion Elementary School just after noon Thursday. The plane had reported landing gear trouble shortly before the collision.
Heinz, his plane's two pilots, the two helicopter pilots and two elementary school students on the ground were killed. Debris rained down on the campus and the adjacent neighborhood of old stone houses and manicured lawns. One child was hospitalized with serious burns. Two other children and two school employees suffered minor burns.
"The people of Pennsylvania have lost a great leader and the nation has lost a great senator," President Bush said in a statement from California.
Susan Coughlin, vice chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, arrived on the scene Thursday and spoke to reporters as firefighters were plucking a red scarf and other debris out of a tree.
"We will be conducting this as a major accident investigation with a full team on board," she said.
Heinz, 52, was the second-ranking Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the ranking GOP member of Banking's securities subcommittee.
First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976, he was re-elected in 1982 and 1988.
He was the largest individual shareholder of H.J. Heinz Co., the international food company founded in 1869 by his great-grandfather.
His death threw Pennsylvania Republican politics into turmoil. State Auditor General Barbara Hafer, a Republican, said party officials were discussing a possible successor.
"There were a lot of calls back and forth" she said, but declined to discuss those named.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB