THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 5, 1997 TAG: 9701050066
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 62 lines
Investigators retrieved crucial debris Saturday from a twin-engine plane that crashed in swampland near the Chesapeake Municipal Airport on Thursday, killing two New York couples.
One large chunk of the fuselage of the Piper Aerostar was carried out by heavy equipment, while crews used 55-gallon barrels to collect and remove smaller debris.
Investigators hope that Saturday's recovery of both engines will yield critical information that might pin down a cause of the crash.
Although fog was heavy when the plane crashed, investigators are most interested in learning whether the engines were providing enough power to lift the plane.
The plane had climbed about 150 feet when it started to descend. The angle of that descent could suggest that the aircraft's engines were not providing enough power to stay aloft.
``The examination of the engines is pretty much going to tell us if they were operating at full power,'' said Butch Wilson, an air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board based in Washington.
Still, Wilson stressed that he is not leaning toward any conclusions until all the evidence is in. Investigations of such crashes can take from six months to a year, depending on the complexity of the incident.
Recovery of the debris is being hampered both by the nature of the crash and its location.
The plane burned furiously, catching fire first as it clipped scores of trees and then bursting into flames on impact. It had just taken on a full load of 200 gallons of fuel for a trip to Georgia. The resulting fire destroyed much of the wreckage.
What was left was spread over a long swath of remote, wooded, marshy area. The crash site is far from any roads, and crews have had to use all-terrain vehicles to reach it.
The debris is being assembled in a hangar at the airport, and investigators will look it over for any signs of trouble. Some of it will later be shipped to the manufacturer for more study.
Meanwhile, the victims' bodies, which were removed on Friday, are at the State Medical Examiner's office in Norfolk. They will undergo examination to determine cause of death, and dental records will be used to identify them.
Relatives have identified the pilot as Dr. Christopher Pavlides, 66, of Glen Cove, N.Y.
He was the chief orthopedic surgeon at Wyckoff Heights Hospital in Brooklyn.
His wife, Hetty Hardin, and two friends, David and Angela Freeman, also of Glen Cove, also are believed to have died in the crash.
The plane crashed about 7:40 p.m. Thursday about three-quarters of a mile from the end of Runway 23, just northwest of the airport.
It had landed in Chesapeake to refuel and drop off Pavlides' granddaughter.
It was traveling from Farmingdale, N.Y., to Atlanta, where Hardin's daughter lives.
Pavlides had more than 20 years of flying experience. He had been piloting the well-maintained plane to Chesapeake once a month for about four years, said John Beaulieu, airport manager and president of Horizon Aviation.
Pavlides is survived by two brothers and three daughters, one of them Nicole Gildon of Virginia Beach.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT PLANE FATALITIES
INVESTIGATION