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

DATE: THURSDAY, August 25, 1994                   TAG: 9408250116
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK AND TODD JACKSON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

INJURED PILOT GETS RIDE HOME

The pilot of a small airplane that crashed on a Roanoke golf course last week, killing two passengers, was released from the hospital late Tuesday and flown back to his home in Pennsylvania.

Joseph Kulwicki, 55, was given the ride home by two members of a Roanoke pilots' club.

"We wanted to make him feel good about Roanoke, despite the fact that he had a bad accident here," said Matt Broughton, a Roanoke attorney and president of the IFR Pilot's Club.

Broughton said he and Jim Frantz agreed to fly Kulwicki to his Meadville, Pa., home after visiting him earlier in the week at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

Kulwicki, an attorney and former member of the Meadville City Council, spent four days in the hospital after suffering a fractured pelvis, internal bruising and a concussion in Friday's accident.

"He seemed to be feeling a lot better, and he was looking forward to getting home," said Sally Ramey, a spokeswoman at Roanoke Memorial. Kulwicki could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Kulwicki's six-passenger single-engine plane crashed at Countryside Golf Course on Friday afternoon, minutes after he took off from Roanoke Regional Airport and began to experience engine trouble.

Authorities said Kulwicki first tried to return to the airport, and then was attempting to land on the golf course when the plane clipped a cherry tree and crashed as stunned golfers watched. A preliminary investigation indicated that a bolt in the plane's throttle had come loose.

Killed in the accident were two of Kulwicki's friends, David and Charlene Peterson of Cochranton, Penn., who had been vacationing with him in the Bahamas.

by CNB