ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 14, 1996 TAG: 9608140050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JENNIFER MILLER, CHRISTINA NUCKOLS AND MAG POFF STAFF WRITERS
note: above
When Praveen Bhaskaran of Vinton left his native India in 1987 to attend Liberty University in Lynchburg, he knew only two people in the United States - a sister in Philadelphia and an uncle in New York.
But when the 28-year-old pilot crashed on Catawba Mountain shortly after midnight Tuesday, he had many American friends to mourn his death.
Bhaskaran, known to his friends by the name Talex, "came to this country looking for the American dream," said Frank Capiello of Lynchburg, who met him while Bhaskaran was a recruit with the Michigan-based Amway Corp. "He found it."
"He was the fruit of the tree," Capiello added. "He was young, successful, and he had a great family life. He accomplished so much that people wanted to know what he knew."
Bhaskaran was flying a single-engine Beech Bonanza owned by Ramp 66, an air cargo company based in Myrtle Beach, S.C., that transports mail and loan documents from Charlotte to Roanoke every weeknight for First Union Bank.
Air safety investigator Randi-Jean Kukla of the National Transportation Safety Board said Bhaskaran was using an instrument flight plan on his trip from Charlotte to Roanoke but had strayed from it on his approach to the airport. He crashed in a wooded area near the Appalachian Trail on Catawba Mountain.
"The weather conditions were very foggy and rainy at that time," she said.
However, Kukla declined to speculate on the cause of the crash, saying she will review the pilot log, maintenance records and recordings of any communication with the Washington Air Traffic Control Center before issuing a preliminary report early next week.
Kukla said the investigation could take up to six months, followed by a three-month review by the federal safety board.
Bhaskaran met many friends, including Capiello, by selling Amway products part-time while studying business and aviation at Liberty. He and his wife, Sunali, quickly became the kind of success story that Amway loves to celebrate: as independent distributors, their income was well into six figures.
Capiello said, "He was a real strong Christian example. He thought his success came from God."
Tom Glasgow of Lynchburg takes credit for introducing Bhaskaran to Amway. Glasgow met the college student through a newspaper ad Bhaskaran had placed to sell his car.
"I saw somebody who had ambition and wanted a good opportunity," Glasgow recalled. "He had a vision and a dream, and he wasn't going to let it slip through his fingers."
Christiansburg resident Jody Lyons, another independent contractor for Amway, said Bhaskaran was one of the most inspirational people he knew.
"He was a man of tremendous faith. He believed in everybody," he said. "He had a lot of people who supported him."
Response to the crash was nearly instantaneous, according to Cmdr. Charles Glass of the Virginia Civil Air Patrol. Because Bhaskaran was scheduled to land at 12:30 a.m., a half hour after the airport closes, he was cleared to approach the runway by the Air Traffic Control Center in Washington, D.C. When Bhaskaran failed to follow standard procedure and report his landing within five minutes, the Washington center alerted local air traffic officials, who in turn contacted the Civil Air Patrol.
Assisted by a report called in to the Roanoke County Police Department of an airplane flying low with a "laboring engine," air patrol officials tracked the plane's transmitter and had identified a target area with a one-mile diameter by dawn, Glass said. At that point, the Life Guard 10 helicopter was able to take off, and the wreckage was spotted at 7:16 a.m. State Police and Roanoke County fire and rescue workers - already on the mountain - were at the site 11 minutes later.
Bhaskaran's body was removed at 9:15 a.m. The fuselage, still intact without any signs of fire damage but missing its wings, lay on its side near a deeply rutted fire road that was the only means of access to the crash site. First Union employees wearing gloves were allowed to remove the 650 pounds of cargo, which consisted of heavy canvas sacks and cardboard boxes filled with internal bank mail and loan applications.
David Scanzoni, spokesman for First Union, said the mail and other documents were recovered undamaged. No checks were aboard the plane, he added.
Scanzoni said the only impact on customers will be a day's delay in processing loan applications.
The mail's destination was the bank's service center on Plantation Road.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. CINDY PINKSTON STAFF Officials go through theby CNBwreckage of the Beech Bonanza Wednesday on Catawba Mountain.
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2. Workers remove some of the 650 pounds of First Union Bank
internal mail and loan documents that were the downed plane's cargo.
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