THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 14, 1995 TAG: 9503140320
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON AND MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
Britt and Becky Barnes ran half a mile through the darkness, across a field and into the woods, where they spotted an airplane wing pointing to the sky. Standing on tiptoes, Becky took a deep breath, then pointed her flashlight inside the tangled aircraft.
The white Piper Cherokee Six had slammed into trees behind the Barneses' house on Lummis Road about 9:45 p.m. Sunday. A passenger, her face bloodied, had crawled from the wreckage and limped to the Barneses' back yard. Waving a large stick that she had used for support, the woman screamed for help.
Becky Barnes, an intensive-care nurse at Louis Obici Memorial Hospital, dialed 911. She feared an intruder was about to enter the remote residence, near the Holland community in the western area of Suffolk.
When the woman said there had been a plane crash, Barnes and her husband ran outside. A police officer who had been patrolling nearby was close behind. Becky Barnes' sister, who had been watching a TV movie with the couple, stayed with the woman.
``We didn't know if anyone else was alive,'' said Becky Barnes, 35. ``We just took off running with just little house flashlights.''
In the wreckage were five people. Two of them - a man and a woman - were alive, trapped beneath fellow passengers.
The plane had crashed into a wooded area next to the Barneses' unplanted peanut field and about 25 feet from a shallow swamp. Wreckage was strewn across the area, and a piece of a wing hung from the crook of a tree.
The plane was wedged among three trees, its engine several feet away and partly covered by water.
Becky Barnes knew she needed to keep the victims from going into shock while they awaited rescue workers.
``I knew I had to keep them talking and awake if I could,'' she said. She spotted a woman's leg and rubbed it, asking her if she could feel it. The woman, later identified as Carolyn Motley, 32, of Gloucester County, said she could.
``That's a good sign,'' Barnes told her. ``Hang on to that thought.''
The other survivor, Motley's husband, Timothy, was having trouble breathing. Barnes moved a body to give him more room.
Timothy Motley, 40, was flown by Nightingale air ambulance to Sentara-Norfolk General Hospital, where he was listed in serious condition late Monday. Carolyn Motley, who was taken to the same hospital by rescue squad, was also in serious condition.
Esther Brown, the woman who had crawled from the aircraft, was in stable condition at Obici Hospital.
The pilot - Emory E. ``Gene'' Bolton, 64, of Suffolk - was pronounced dead at the scene. Also killed were two passengers from Hayes, near Gloucester - Kyle P. Motley Sr., who would have been 62 today; and Raymond A. Smith, 59.
Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration said it could be months before they release a formal conclusion on the cause of the accident.
Bolton, whose plane was based in Suffolk and who knew the area well, apparently was trying to make an emergency landing at a small airstrip once used by a local skydiving club. It is off Hare Road, about two miles from the crash site.
Just after the crash, Brown told the Barneses that the plane had run out of fuel. Robert L. Hancock, air safety investigator for the transportation board, said there was no evidence of fuel in the fuel tank, on the plane or ground or in a nearby swamp where the engine was found.
Bolton, the pilot, of the 8200 block of Canterbury Lane, was serving a second term on the Suffolk Airport Commission. He had been flying for more than 30 years and was a certified flight instructor with multiengine, instrument and glider ratings.
Bolton was retired from the Navy and had sold cars for Hampton Chevrolet and Duman Ford in Suffolk.
He was a NASCAR enthusiast and often flew people to races. Sunday's trip reportedly was an annual outing for Bolton and his friends. They had been to the NASCAR Winston Cup race in Atlanta, Brown told Becky and Britt Barnes.
Winston Cup Racing Series seat cushions were scattered around the plane as investigators worked Monday. On the ground was an open briefcase filled with papers, a compass and a directory to local municipal airports.
Becky Barnes said she was amazed that anyone survived the crash.
``I was glad to turn on the TV this morning and hear that they were still alive,'' she said Monday. ``You just don't every day walk away from a plane crash.''
Barnes, who has lived all her life on her family's farm, had never experienced anything like the accident. She didn't hesitate to help.
``There was somebody there who needed us,'' she said. ``We just did what we needed to do.''
``When I know somebody is hurting, I'm going to be there,'' she said. ``I'm just glad I know enough to go back there and help out.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II, Staff
Above: FAA inspector Bob Culberson, right, and Robert L. Hancock of
the NTSB inspect the fuselage of the Piper Cherokee Six in which two
people died and three were injured in a Sunday night airplane crash.
Below: FAA personnel begin the painstaking removal of the wreckage.
Map
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT PLANE by CNB