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.