Possible VMC rollover Crash Claims Raymond Airport Manager...

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Mayor identifies one of victims as manager of airport in Raymond

By Andrew Nelson

Piper Twin Comanche:

Crew: One pilot

Capacity: 3 passengers

Length: 25 ft. 2 in.

Wingspan: 36 ft.

Maximum speed: 206 mph

Range: 1,122 miles

Source: Wikipedia.org

RAYMOND — As a doomed airplane prepared for takeoff Thursday afternoon, a flight instructor at the airport heard what he believes was the sound of one of its engines backfiring.

"I thought about it to myself, 'That engine doesn't sound very good,' " David Hutchins, 24, said. "I definitely wouldn't have taken off with it spittin' and sputtering like that."

Hutchins and a student flew to Monroe, La., on a training flight. After they landed there, he learned the noisy airplane back in Mississippi at John Bell Williams Airport had crashed and burst into flames just after takeoff, killing three people on board.

New Albany Mayor Tim Kent said the passengers were airport manager Billy Crumpton, pilot Paul Fisher Jr., both of New Albany, and Jim Loftin of Walnut. Loftin had just bought the plane and Fisher was piloting it back to Walnut, Kent said.

Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart said the men could not be positively identified because their bodies had been burned beyond recognition.
Authorities had not determined a cause of the crash as of Thursday evening.

The Piper Twin Comanche crashed minutes before an introductory aviation class was scheduled to begin at the airport, which is owned by Hinds Community College. Aviation classes and flight training are conducted there, though much of the traffic in and out of the airport is not affiliated with the college.

Edward Aycock of Brandon said he watched the plane take off. As it gained altitude, he thought he heard a pop.
"When the airplane took off, it just pretty much went to the right," said Aycock, 20, a sophomore aviation student. "When it does that, unless you got altitude, you can't recover unless you are a very good pilot."

A group of students piled into a pickup and rushed to the grass field where the plane went down.
"Everyone could see the people in there just burning, but there was nothing you could do about it," said Stephen Griffin, a sophomore aviation student.

The crash was a shock to the beginning aviators, but no one was deterred from flying.

"I'm a Christian, and God is calling me to be a pilot," Griffin, 25, of Pearl, said. "So if it's my time to go, it's my time to go."
Randy Pearcy, chairman of the aviation department at the college, said the aircraft had been parked at the airport for more than a year and he didn't know when the last annual inspection had been done on it.

In New Albany, Kent said he delivered the news to Crumpton's wife.
Crumpton had been with the airport between six and eight months, Kent said.

He had worked for 26 years as an air traffic controller at the Memphis International Airport.

Kent said Crumpton loved airplanes and aviation. Crumpton also came by city hall often, he said.
"He was one of those kind of guys who cheered everybody up when he walked into the room. He was always in good humor," Kent said.

Kent said Fisher has a son who is about to graduate from the Naval Academy in Annapolis soon. He did not know Loftin well.
At the airport, some pilots said if they were flying such an aircraft and it stalled at such a low altitude, they too would have had a difficult time.

"It would be tough, even in my shoes, if something like that happens," Hutchins said.

 

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As a doomed airplane prepared for takeoff Thursday afternoon, a flight instructor at the airport heard what he believes was the sound of one of its engines backfiring.

"I thought about it to myself, 'That engine doesn't sound very good,' " David Hutchins, 24, said. "I definitely wouldn't have taken off with it spittin' and sputtering like that."

Hutchins and a student flew to Monroe, La., on a training flight. After they landed there, he learned the noisy airplane back in Mississippi at John Bell Williams Airport had crashed and burst into flames just after takeoff, killing three people on board.

I don't know what chance this Hutchins guy had of making a radio call to the stricken aircraft, but I sure as heck wouldn't go making culpatory statements to the media after the fact. Geeze, pilots complain all the time about how crappy the media is in regards to reporting aviation stories and then stick themselves up like a nail waiting to get hammered.