THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 16, 1995 TAG: 9503150145
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
FOR A LUMMIS Road family, drama turned into a real-life rescue last Sunday night.
Britt and Becky Barnes were watching a movie, ``In the Line of Danger: Kidnapped,'' with Ms. Barnes' sister, when a plane crashed into the woods behind their house, near Holland.
The six-seater plane fell before 10 p.m., killing the pilot and two passengers. Three others in the Piper Cherokee Six were injured, including a woman who walked nearly half a mile to the Barnes' yard for help.
Nearly incoherent, the woman finally managed to say there had been a plane crash.
Becky Barnes, who had dialed 911, told the police dispatcher, who alerted a police officer patrolling nearby. Immediately, a massive rescue effort was launched.
Within minutes, a policewoman pulled into the long lane leading to the farm house. She and Barneses ran across the field and into the woods, while Barnes' sister stayed with the injured woman, later identified as Esther Brown.
Brown told her comforters that she and four companions from Gloucester County were returning with their friend, Suffolk pilot Emory E. ``Gene'' Bolton, from a car race near Atlanta. The plane had run out of gas, Brown said.
Meanwhile, the dispatcher downtown paged police, fire and rescue personnel.
Volunteer firefighters from Holland, about five miles away, arrived first, assisting the policewoman and civilians who were trying to comfort the victims.
Soon, fire trucks from Whaleyville and Suffolk rumbled onto the farm, along with ambulances from Nansemond-Suffolk and Bennetts Creek Rescue Squads.
The plane, with both wings sheared off, rested on its right side. Rescuers got Timothy Motley out and loaded him onto the Nightingale air ambulance. His wife, Carolyn, was taken in a pickup truck to the Barnes' yard because the ambulance couldn't get through the mud, said Fire Chief Mark Outlaw, who coordinated the rescue effort.
Motley and his wife were in serious condition Tuesday at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. An emergency physician wrote a letter commending rescuers for stabilizing Carolyn Motley, who had severe injuries to her spinal cord.
``It very likely saved her from being partially paralyzed,'' Outlaw said.
He was amazed at Brown's ability to get out of the plane, possibly saving herself and the lives of the Motleys, Outlaw said. ``There's no telling how long it would have been before anybody would have found them,'' he said.
She was in stable condition at Obici Hospital on Tuesday.
Killed in the crash were Emory E. ``Gene'' Bolton of Suffolk, the pilot; Kyle P. Motley Sr., Timothy Motley's father; and Raymond A. Smith.
The rescue effort began winding down soon after 1 a.m. Police officers stayed to secure the site until federal investigators arrived.
The departments involved are planning to critique their efforts this week to see how they could make improvements if a similar situation occurs, Outlaw said. ILLUSTRATION: Passenger hurt in crash walked half a mile for help.
Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
The plane crashed Sunday into the woods behind the home of Becky and
Britt Barnes. Becky Barnes alerted police after an injured passenger
walked to their home seeking help.
The Barneses look over the crash site. Becky Barnes, a nurse, tended
the injured until help arrived.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT PLANE FATALITIES INJURIES RESCUE by CNB