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Hendrick Motor Sports Plane Crash


ROMCO33

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from espn.com:

 

Harry Litten, manager of Moody Funeral Service in Stuart, Va., said Virginia state police had given him this list of those on the plane:

 

Ricky Hendrick, Rick Hendrick's son and a retired NASCAR driver; John Hendrick, Rick Hendrick's brother and president of the organization; Kimberly and Jennifer Hendrick, John Hendrick's twin daughters; Joe Jackson; Jeff Turner; Randy Dorton, the team's chief engine builder; Scott Latham, a pilot for NASCAR driver Tony Stewart; and pilots Dick Tracy and Liz Morrison.

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Here is a link to the AP/ Yahoo link. My thoughts and prayers go out to that entire organization.

 

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...id=557&ncid=716

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The Today show on NBC this morning reported that the plane did not have a blackbox on board. The NTSB will have to reassemble the plane and go off the eye witness accounts of those that heard the unfortunate crash.

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REASSEMBLE THE PLANE?

 

WHAT FOR??

 

Chip Ganassi already told them what happened. There is no control tower nor radar at that airport. As he approached the airport and dropped under the fog he had overshot the airport by quite a ways. It scared him pretty bad so he went and landed at a different airport.

 

The Hendrick plane obviously dropped his elevation too soon while in the thick fog and unfortunately never saw the hillside.

 

Sad situation, but to reassemble the plane is a waste of time and money that they could spend on educating pilots that fly into the airport or maybe build a control tower with radar that may help prevent future happenings like this in that area.

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Ya, that is a good prdiction, but you can't be totally sure on that basis. He could have had an engine failure or something else that could have brought the plane down too, which in turn the only way to find that out is to piece the plane back together and run tests. By learning and epirementing with the plane in tact can also allow for people to make senarios for that kind of situation to be able to train those pilots. Point of the matter is, you can't just go off assumptions. Also if you read other news articles, The DO go through a control tower, but at another airport, which doesn't totally limit them to complete isolation

 

-Shawn

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I grew up on the coast of Maine, about a mile from the Bar Harbor airport, a small, regional airport much like the one near Martinsville. Our house was situatated across the road from one of those beautiful white New England churches with a tall white steeple and a large weather vane at the very top. Behind the church was a small hill, maybe a hunderd feet taller than the top of the chruch's weather vane. Planes landing at the airport would barely clear the miss the top of that fir-and pine-covered hill, pass directly over the steeple and our house and then glide over a small inlet and touch down on the runway.

 

On foggy days my brothers and I would bet on whether the planes would fly low enough to make the pointer change direction in the plane's wake. It's a wonder that weather vane never ended up in our front yard.

 

One foggy night, a small, twin engine plane crashed into the backside of that hill. My older brother and my dad were the first to arrive at the scene. Thankfully there was no fire and the pilot, who was not too seriously injured, was the only person on board. As I recall the story was that the pilot thought he had already passed the church steeple and was looking for the runway lights when he hit.

 

Nick Holt

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lcpyltx8 is correct,

There are several reasons why the NTSB is going to reassemble the aircraft. They include legal issues, liability issues, and Federal regulations.

Legal issues include cause of the accident. Yes, everyone knows it hit a mountain, but the reason has to be determined--was it pilot error, or did something on the aircraft fail? I have been inolved in the recovery and reconstruction and assessment of a few aircraft accidents, and you would be amazed at the amount of data you can retrieve doing this.

Liability--remember what country we live in, the sharks...I mean lawyers are already circling the families involved. There will be a need to know what exactly happened, and who or what is really at fault.

Federal--Most accidents involving loss of life must be fully investigated, to the point of reassembling the plane. Plain and simple, a requirement.

Further, if you look at the airports around the country, most don't have anymore control than the Martinsville airport, and don't bring up upgrading all of them; there ain't that kind of money out there.

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Nick... I always knew there was something strange about you!

Yankee! (just pickin)

 

 

Yeah I know... legal JUNK! (had to pick a "nice" word)

 

Anyway... I just read that was not the 1st approach to the airport. The first time they dropped below the fog they overshot the airport just like Ganassi did while being guided in by this control tower at another airport. They circled and tried again coming out of the clouds and fog earlier. Too early.

 

This has got to be heartbreaking for those family members.

May God be with them.

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