ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 23, 1996 TAG: 9612230105
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NARROWS
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY AND BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER STAFF WRITERS
An Airborne Express cargo jet with six people aboard crashed and exploded on a snow- and cloud-covered Giles County mountainside Sunday night en route from North Carolina to Ohio.
There were no survivors from the fiery explosion, which rocked the town of Narrows three miles away.
The DC-8-63 freighter was empty of cargo and headed from Greensboro, N.C., to Wilmington, Ohio, when it struck East River Mountain at approximately 6:14 p.m., said state police Lt. Gary W. Taylor.
Airborne Express Flight 827 carried three crew members and three mechanics as passengers, according to officials with ABX Air Inc. and the Federal Aviation Administration. ABX Air, which owns the plane, operates with its parent company, Airborne Freight, as Airborne Express.
The mechanics had just reconfigured the used plane, which the company had just purchased, to its specifications. "It was a test flight," said Rita Carey, community relations manager with ABX. The plane was on its way to ABX Air's main hub and major sorting facility in Wilmington, Carey said.
Tony Thorn, who lives just outside Narrows, said he knew the plane was in trouble when he heard it fly over his house.
``It sounded like someone dragging 'taters across a tin roof,'' Thorn said. ``Then I heard a loud boom, and then another one. It jarred the back of my head.''
Bill and Margaret French heard the plane's engines sputtering as it neared their house on Old Wolf Creek Road. As Bill French hollered to his wife to call 911, Margaret French, 63, paused to look outside.
"When I turned around, it was a big ball of fire," Margaret French said. "It's awful to see something like that."
Nearby, JoAnn Jesse heard the crash. "First, I heard the motor, and then, all of a sudden, there was a big boom," Jesse, 42, said. "The whole sky went red."
The plane was coming in at a gradual slope with its landing lights on, but then pitched downward into a nose dive, the Frenches said.
All the 50-odd rescuers from across Giles County had to go on was eyewitness reports and coordinates from the jet's last known position as relayed from the Indianapolis, Ind., control center, said Capt. Steve Davis with the Giles County Rescue Squad.
Rescuers used a hand-held Global Positioning System unit - which gives precise latitude and longitude readings using satellites - to fix the Indianapolis tower's last coordinates and head up the 3,500-foot mountain, which is on the border with West Virginia.
It took them until 7:32 p.m. to reach the widely scattered remains of the aircraft, Davis said.
By 7:40 p.m., rescuers had confirmed it was the same Airborne Express jet that had lost contact with Indianapolis, Davis said.
A low cloud ceiling, rain and the rugged terrain north of Virginia 61 hampered the search. The National Weather Service office in Blacksburg had reports of freezing rain in Giles County at the time of the wreck.
Rescuers used a squadron of all-terrain vehicles with chains on their wheels to head up an old logging road and reach the crash site on private land.
Rescuers picked up no signal from the plane's distress transmitter. They had difficulty just using their own two-way radios because of the terrain, Davis said. After confirming there were no survivors, rescuers secured the site and withdrew for the night, awaiting the arrival of investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA.
David McDaniel, who lives nearby, volunteered his Honda all-terrain vehicle and aided in the search with Bill French and others.
McDaniel said trees were sheared off and wreckage - some still burning - was scattered over at least 100 yards. "The biggest piece was as big as that car," said McDaniel, pointing over his shoulder to a Ford Escort station wagon.
Dana Waldron, a licensed practical nurse who lives along Wolf Creek, was driven up to the crash site in case there were survivors.
"There were no bodies that we could find," Waldron said. They couldn't get very close to the wreckage because of the fire, but she said there were large pieces of plane strewn everywhere.
The first McDonnell Douglas DC-8s were put into service in 1959, and the last were manufactured in 1972.
Several versions of the original DC-8 were made, including the DC-8-63 freighter with a long fuselage, which was designed for trans-Atlantic operation and first flew in 1967. A spokeswoman for ABX Air did not know the age of the plane that crashed Sunday.
Staff writers Lisa K. Garcia, Elizabeth Obenshain and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. ALAN KIM/Staff. Bill and Margaret French heard theby CNBplane coming down. "When I turned around, it was a big ball of
fire," Margaret French said. "It's awful to see something like
that." 2. ERIC BRADY/Staff. Capt. Steve Davis of the Giles County
Rescue Squad said searchers had difficulty using their two-way
radios because of the terrain. color. Graphic: 2 maps by staff.
color. KEYWORDS: FATALITY