Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 14, 1995 TAG: 9503140140
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium
A woman who survived the Sunday night crash climbed from the wreckage and walked a half-mile to an isolated farmhouse. Residents there called authorities, then set out to help the other survivors.
``You know you're going to find bodies,'' said Becky Barnes, a nurse who lives in the farmhouse. But she and her husband, Britt, found another woman alive in the plane, pinned beneath a man's body. And they found a third survivor, a man, along with the bodies of two other men.
Police identified the dead as the pilot, Emory E. Bolton, 64, of Suffolk; and two Gloucester County residents, Kyle Motley, 61, and Raymond Smith. The survivors were identified as Timothy Motley, 40, and his wife, Carol Ann Motley, 32; and Esther Brown, 35, all of Gloucester County.
Police were not sure whether Kyle and Timothy Motley were related.
Brown walked from the wreckage to seek help, police said.
Bob Hancock, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator who arrived at the scene Monday, said the wreckage would be examined piece by piece to determine what happened.
The investigation could take several months to complete.
According to Becky Barnes, a crying and screaming woman approached the rear of her house in Suffolk's Holland section shortly after 10 p.m. Her husband, who went out to investigate while his wife called police, said the woman had blood streaming down her face and was limping.
Becky Barnes said the woman told them that the plane, returning from a trip to Sunday's NASCAR Winston Cup race in Atlanta, ran out of fuel.
The couple said they never heard the plane pass overhead, but about 15 minutes before the woman appeared they heard an unusual noise.
``We ran outside and didn't see anything,'' Britt Barnes said. ``It was dark.'' He said the noise ``wasn't overly loud, but it was something different. We thought maybe something fell over in the garage.''
The single-engine plane came down at the edge of a sloping field, striking trees about 30 feet tall.
One wing wedged in tree limbs. The fuselage, which did not catch fire, came to rest on the ground on its right side.
The plane was a six-seater, said police Capt. G.A. Cipra.
Authorities were not sure whether the plane was headed for the Suffolk airport, about 10 miles away, or the Newport News airport about 30 miles to the north.
The pilot may have been trying to reach a grass landing strip used by skydiving clubs, Cipra said. The unlighted landing strip is about three miles from the crash site.
Timothy Motley was flown by helicopter to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where he was in serious condition Monday.
Carol Ann Motley first was taken to Obici Hospital in Suffolk but later was transferred to Sentara, where she was in serious condition.
Esther Brown was in fair condition Monday at Obici Hospital in Suffolk.
by CNB