Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 4, 1993 TAG: 9304040202
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN. LENGTH: Medium
INVESTIGATORS HAVE FEW CLUES IN KULWICKI CRASH
While witnesses' accounts suggest mechanical failure caused the plane crash that killed Winston Cup champion Alan Kulwicki, National Transportation Safety Board lead investigator Phil Powell said Saturday that nothing has been found to bolster that contention."At this point, we have not seen anything to really cause us to focus in on a particular component," Powell said. However, the seven-person team had not completed its initial investigation at the crash site as of Saturday afternoon.
"We still have quite a bit to do in the field," he said. "We still have not looked under the airplane."
And as the Food City 500 Winston Cup race is conducted at Bristol International Raceway today, beginning at 1 p.m., Powell said investigators would be busy removing the wreckage from a grassy hillside outside Blountville.
Kulwicki and three others died there at 9:30 p.m. Thursday when their twin-engine turboprop Merlin aircraft plummeted while making what appeared to be a routine landing at Tri-City Airport.
At Kulwicki's race shop in Concord, N.C., team members gathered to make the final arrangements for their leader and, with team administrator Felix Sabates, take the first steps toward deciding the future of Alan Kulwicki Racing.
"We still haven't finalized all of the services," Sabates' publicist, Jane Gossage, said. Burial will be in Kulwicki's native state of Wisconsin, but his body still had not been released by Tennessee authorities Saturday, she said.
A number of the team members "have been here most all day," she said from the shop. But as to substantive discussions of the future, "I think they're all too emotionally tied to this to address that yet," she said.
Rumors swirled about this tragedy as quickly as they do about Winston Cup drivers and team changes. Much of the talk centered on reports that "vultures" were circling the remains of Kulwicki's championship team, looking to take over his Hooters sponsorship or get his top mechanics.
There were reports that crew chief Paul Andrews and engine builder Danny Glad already had been offered jobs. But some, if not all, of the offers were said to have been made out of a concern for their welfare as much as a desire to grab their talent.
At the crash site, there were reports that one engine of the plane had not been found, but Powell refuted that.
"I counted two there yesterday, and I counted two today," he said.
Powell was less definite about another report that a propeller had been found four miles away.
He said the propeller from one engine had been accounted for, but since investigators had not seen underneath the wreckage Saturday, he couldn't say whether the other propeller was there or not.
"We hope to start moving it today," he said. "We'll probably pick it up and move it to another location, in Griffin, Ga., where we will look at it in detail."
The investigation will include, among other things, a "full-blown teardown" of the engines and other components, a check of the pilot's qualifications and record and a study of the maintenance records of the Hooters-owned aircraft, he said.
It will be a year before the NTSB formally reveals a probable cause of the accident, he said, but a report of preliminary findings will be completed by the first of next week, he said.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING FATALITY