ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
Federal aviation investigators have started their inspection of what is left of a small airplane that crashed nose-first Tuesday afternoon in Franklin County, killing a Texas couple.
Charles Diseker Jr., 68, an Austin dentist, and his wife, Estelle, 66, flew into a storm that whipped 50-mph winds, hard rain and snow across Franklin County on Tuesday. They did not call for help before the plane lost its radio signal, said Claude Webster, Franklin County's public safety director.
The GlasAir GL20 the Disekers were flying - a two-seat experimental aircraft valued at $150,000 - is not equipped with a recording device used on larger jets to help investigators determine crash causes, Webster said. An airplane is classified as experimental when all or part of it is homemade.
The plane's last communication with Roanoke Regional Airport showed its altitude at 4,400 feet, a spokeswoman with the National Transportation Safety Board said.
The investigation of the crash will take time, she said, because the airplane's parts must be accounted for and analyzed, and autopsies - including toxicology tests - are being conducted on the victims.
Investigators also are gathering weather information from the time of the crash.
The Disekers' plane dropped from radar and lost radio contact with the airport at 4:15 p.m. The plane's last known coordinates placed it over Floyd County, Webster said.
Its projected flight path pushed the search into Franklin County, where the plane was found about 6:15 p.m. in a patch of woods off Virginia 738 in the Retreat community.
A woman who had heard about the crash and gone out looking for it spotted the plane.
The Disekers were on their way from Texas to Leesburg, Va., probably to visit their son, who is an air traffic controller there, Webster said.
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB