ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 17, 1996 TAG: 9611180080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ORANGE
SOURCE: Associated Press
A small airplane carrying 10 skydivers and a pilot crashed during takeoff Saturday afternoon, sending all on board to area hospitals, police said. There were no fatalities.
Orange County Sheriff William Spence said the plane crashed at Orange County Field about 3 p.m.
Caleb Glick, the airport operator, watched as the twin-engine plane ran out of room, bounced off the end of the runway and cartwheeled into a pasture about 2,000 feet beyond the end of the runway.
``It looked normal,'' he said. ``Then it went off the end and cartwheeled.''
The plane hurled through three fences and burst into flames.
``There was a huge fireball,'' said Mervin Glick, 27, Caleb Glick's son. ``It looked just like when they blow it up on television, but this was for real.''
Ric Dennis, safety officer for Skydive Orange, which had leased the plane, said he and other club members watched in horror as the plane crashed.
``This is your worst nightmare, you never think anything like this is going to happen,'' he said.
Mervin Glick jumped into his truck and sped toward the smoking wreck, expecting the worst. When he got to the remains of the plane, he saw the cabin was in one piece but the wings and tail had been sheared off.
``When I saw the cabin of the airplane intact, my eyes just about fell on the floor,'' he said.
Several skydivers had already climbed out of the smouldering wreckage when Glick and other bystanders pulled up, but a few injured passengers were still strapped into the cabin.
``I was hollering for extra help,'' said Glick, who has worked as a volunteer firefighter. ``We needed a pocket knife to cut the seat belt from one of the seriously injured ones. You couldn't see two feet into the cabin. It was seriously on fire.''
Some of the passengers trapped inside were calling for help, but Glick said there was no panic.
``We had one thing in mind: We knew the airplane was going to go any minute,'' Glick said.
About 30 seconds after the last victim was pulled from the wreck, the cabin burst into flames.
``I could not believe anybody came out of that alive,'' said Caleb Glick.
Five of the passengers were taken to Culpeper Memorial Hospital; three were treated and released and two were admitted in very stable condition.
The remaining six victims were taken to University of Virginia Hospital where officials said Ned Wulin of Fishersville was in critical condition and James Graves of Richmond was in serious condition. The other four were all listed in fair condition.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Melvin Glick (left) and his father, Caleb Glick, theby CNBoperator at Orange County Airport, survey the wreckage Saturday.