Disaster averted in plane crash scare

Local News

March 1, 2009

Emergency responders ready, but aircraft landed in North Carolina

By HEATHER PYLES, CJ Staff Writer The Commonwealth Journal Sun Mar 01, 2009, 01:13 AM EST

A report of a possible plane crash this weekend in eastern Pulaski County had state and county emergency personnel ready to carry out a substantial search and rescue mission — and fortunately, that report turned out to be a false alarm.

Emergency services received a notification at around 1 p.m. Saturday that a pilot operating a Cessna C172 — a small plane that can hold four passengers at the most — had sent a distress signal somewhere over the Shopville-Stab-Ano area.

Don Franklin, with the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management, said the pilot was the only known person on the plane, and that it was unknown whether there were any passengers aboard.

“We got a distress call that the pilot had an electrical problem and was dealing with inclement weather,” said Franklin.

Franklin said inclement weather could mean a number of things, but he said wing icing may have been a possibility. Wing icing occurs when droplets of freezing rain begin to build up on an aircraft’s wings. Icing has been attributed to several fatal plane crashes in the past, and it’s being considered as one possible contributor to the most recent crash in which a commuter plane crashed into a house near Buffalo, N.Y., killing all 49 people aboard the plane.

Franklin said Indianapolis International Airport, which received the distress signal, reported that it lost radar signal of the small plane somewhere over Shopville and notified authorities that it may have crashed within a 10-mile radius of its last known coordinates.

“That’s when the (Pulaski County) Rescue Squad was activated,” Franklin said.

Franklin said the plane left Louisville Inter-national Airport, with its destination set for Springfield, Ky., which is located in Washington County.

Pulaski County is located southeast of Washington County, and Franklin said he didn’t have any information on why the plane was located so far off from its destination.

Visibility issues caused by thick, low-lying clouds may have been a factor in the pilot’s miscalculation.

The search was also made a bit more difficult because an Emergency Locator Transponder, of an ELT, was not activated. ELTs, while not required for private planes, are installed to ensure that authorities receive an alert beacon signal in case an aircraft goes down. That signal can lead emergency responders to the site of a crash.

The search, which involved more than thirty people, mostly members of local and state emergency services, lasted for about an hour before the U.S. Air Force notified authorities that the plane had been landed at a private airstrip in North Carolina.

Members of Shopville-Stab Fire Department, Mt. Victory Fire Department, Bronston Fire Department, Haynes Knob Fire Department and Woodstock Fire Department assisted the rescue squad with the search. Other agencies, including the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department, Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement, the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management, Kentucky State Police and Commonwealth Canine Search and Rescue were also on-site to assist in the search effort.

Franklin said the Civil Air Patrol also assisted.

“They were not able to fly due to ice but they did send a ground force,” Franklin said.

The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department’s Air One helicopter was being prepped for flight to assist in the search when the news came in that the plane had been landed safely.

A search by ground would’ve been a difficult task because much of the terrain in eastern Pulaski County is made up of scarcely inhabited thick forests, creeks and cliffs.

“He (the pilot) could’ve been anywhere,” Franklin said. “The terrain is horrendous.”

Franklin said the undertaking was carried out efficiently and professionally by members of emergency services.

“It was a good coordinated effort of several agencies with a single purpose,” he said. “It went from the local level up to state agencies.

“That just shows folks in this community come together for a common purpose,” Franklin added.

As for the actions on the part of the pilot, Franklin said there were too many factors that may have gone into why he flew the plane to North Carolina instead of where he originally intended to go.

And the question of why he didn’t notify anyone that he would make it to a private airstrip can’t be answered either, although Franklin said the pilot may have notified someone that he was safe when he landed.

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