THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 13, 1995 TAG: 9503130080
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE AND SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
Three people were killed, two more were seriously injured and a sixth person walked away late Sunday after a small plane crashed about five miles west of the Suffolk Municipal Airport.
The identities of the victims were not immediately known, but Lt. Jeff Messinger of the Fire Department said three men died and a woman and two men survived.
It was the woman who was able to walk from the wreckage and went to a nearby house to telephone for help.
Two men were trapped in the wreckage of the single-engine Cherokee, which was partly in a tree, said police spokesman Mike Simpkins.
The plane went down shortly after 10 p.m. in a peanut field behind a farmhouse in the 500 block of Lummis Road. The area is about a mile from Holland Road.
Witnesses who had been to the crash site said early this morning that it was surprising that anyone survived. The largest piece of wreckage was a wing, and the plane appeared to have hit hard rather than gliding into the field - although in the darkness it was hard to fully assess the situation.
An injured man was flown by Nightingale helicopter ambulance to the Trauma Center at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. The woman was taken by ambulance to Obici Hospital.
The other injured man was treated at the scene after he was freed from the wreckage.
Their conditions were not available early today.
Authorities said preliminary information indicated that the aircraft was en route to the Suffolk airport from Atlanta when it went down. It was believed to have departed from Suffolk earlier in the day, although that could not be confirmed.
There were conflicting initial report about what might have gone wrong.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were en route to the scene this morning and the Federal Aviation Administration is expected to send investigators later today.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT PLANE FATALITIES INJURIES by CNB