ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 26, 1996 TAG: 9612260067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.
SOURCE: Associated Press
The cargo plane that crashed Sunday in Virginia killing six people experienced trouble the day before the crash serious enough to force pilots to scrap a test run, a television station reported Wednesday.
The rebuilt Airborne Express DC-8 had trouble with its hydraulic system Saturday, causing the plane to drop about a mile in altitude, WXII reported. The plane turned around and returned to the Greensboro company that was completing the overhaul, Triad International Maintenance Corp.
A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said the plane had some kind of hydraulic problem Saturday. The plane fell into a steep dive about 20 minutes into another test flight to Ohio on Sunday and crashed into a Virginia mountainside.
Those killed were Brian Scully, 36, of Walkertown; Kenneth Athey, 39, of Winston-Salem; Garth Avery, 48, of Dayton, Ohio; William Keith Leming, 37, of Lebanon, Ohio; Terry Waelti, 52, and Edward Bruce Goettsch, 48, both of Wilmington, Ohio.
LENGTH: Short : 30 linesby CNB