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Citabria down at PTK

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U-I pilot

Relaxation....
Joined
Dec 3, 2002
Posts
537
Just saw on local news a Black/White Citabria crashed short of 9L at PTK. 2 Fatalities. Don't know any real details right now.....
Thoughts and prayers to the families of the pilots.
 
Heard it was from Sutton aviation up in Lapeer, cripes I used to send my students there for CFI spin training...
 
Does anyone know if Barry Sutton was on Board???
My Thoughts and Prayers to all those involved
 
I actually just drove out there. turns out you can get really close to the end of 27L. It looks like the plane came about 10 feet from the fence at the end of the airport. There was a sheared gear 20 feet behind the plane, everything from the firewall foreward was bent back along side the plane and the left wing was almost detatched. On the news they said it was a bellanca but it did look like a citabria. It was hard to tell. Kind of erie to be that close to where 2 people just died.
 
Barry Sutton is OK. I just saw him on the news. Do we know who the CFI was? D95 or PTK based?
 
Pontiac based cetabria
Gene Hammond I believe was the CFI
Don't know about the student
 
urflyingme?! said:
Be carefull out there guys...

RIP
Ditto, Gene was a friend of mine. Godspeed


http://www.wxyztv.com/wxyz/nw_local_news/article/0,2132,WXYZ_15924_4421382,00.html

Two Killed in Oakland County Plane Crash By Mary Conway
Web produced by Sarah Morgan

January 27, 2006
A flight instructor and his student ran into trouble, Friday morning and crashed at Oakland County Airport while trying to land. Both were killed in the accident. The instructor, 51-year-old Gene Hammond, and 34-year-old student, Thomas Christopher Bailey, were both certified to fly a variety of aircraft. Bailey was a commercial pilot who already had an instrument rating and was anxious to learn to fly a "Tail Dragger," which is a plane with the wheel in the rear.
The two talked with the tower, but never gave any indication of trouble and were given permission to land. The single engine Bellanca Citabria went down at 9:26 a.m.
David VanderVeen, from the Oakland County International Airport, said, "It was apparently making a very tight turn to land to the East, which in aviation terms is runway 9 left, it appears, and I’m using the word appears because this all has to be verified by the FAA in this investigation, it landed short of the runway. There was no fire, but there were two fatalities."
Residents nearby said it sounded like the end gate on a gravel hauler slamming close.
Both Hammond and Bailey were from Pontiac. The plane was owned by Sutton Aviation out of Lapeer.
 
We had all be taking off on 27L & R all day yesterday, they must have had a problem and tried to make it back to 9L. Just one of those really unfortunate incidents.
 
The Convairs are great. Gene Hammond used to fly for IFL, everyone said he was the coolest Caravan guy there, he'll be missed...
 
I don't like to hear of this, I hope I'm not too too late for a prayer, ( or something in my heart), my thoughts, strength for the survivors! go on! but I cringe! i cry everytime I read! Your friends are your friends, and we need friends! Sounds like Tom is someone we missed in life!
godbless!
 
My sincere condolences to the family and friends.

They will be missed.

-JP
 

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