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

DATE: SUNDAY, September 19, 1993                   TAG: 9309190161
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BOTETOURT DOCTOR DIES IN PLANE CRASH

Dr. Everett Lee Coffey of Buchanan was towing a glider containing two people when his plane failed to gain altitude and smashed into a field near Staunton shortly after 2 p.m.

The glider broke free of the airplane, and its occupants were unharmed, said Dave Barry, manager of the Eagles Nest/Waynesboro Airport, where Coffey had been headed.

Coffey was taken by ambulance to King's Daughter's Hospital in Staunton, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

"He probably died instantly," Nursing Supervisor Linda Gail Johnson said. "It's just not certain how he died at this point."

Coffey's 38-year-old son, Clifton, said he suspected his father had a heart attack while he was flying, causing the plane to crash.

"He was a damned good pilot and not prone to take chances," he said. "He was too good a pilot just to screw up."

Coffey's body will be sent to Roanoke for an autopsy, Johnson said.

Barry said Coffey had been flying the plane, owned by the Ridge Valley Soaring Club, for years and had a lot of experience towing gliders.

Coffey "knew the airplane better than anyone around," he said.

He also knew the signal to let people know he was having trouble, which was to wiggle his wings, Barry said.

"There was no such signal given today," he said. "They don't understand what happened."

Barry said Coffey had flown out of an airport in Buchanan earlier in the day towing the glider and that the glider had flown free of the airplane when they came upon some clouds.

Coffey kept in touch with the glider by radio and went to retrieve it when it landed in the field near I-64.

Barry said witnesses told him Coffey's airplane took off from the top of a knoll with the glider in tow and that both aircraft gained altitude. Then the aircraft disappeared from view over a hill. The glider reappeared moments later, but the airplane did not.

Clifton Coffey said his father had retired from his physician's practice and was doing part-time work for the state, giving medical care to inmates at Camp 25 near Daleville. He also was the medical examiner for Botetourt County.

"He was a good man," he said. "He did his best to help people."

Keywords:
FATALITY