Three Plane Crashes in Six Days

Nathan Frick

December 29, 2006

Seven people have now lost their lives in three separate plane crashes in our area in less than a week. Friday morning, the National Transportation Safety Board will be back in the Tennessee Valley to look into yet another plane crash Thursday afternoon. It's the second one in two days in Marion County Tennessee.

Marion County Sheriff Bo Burnett tells us a Trike Ultralight two seater went down about 1:30 pm Central Time. The pilot died on impact. Burnett says they have not notified his family so they are not releasing his name yet, but we're told he was in his 30's and from Georgia. Sheriff Burnett says the man was trying to land the Ultralight at the Marion County airport, in Jasper. He clipped trees on the way down and crashed near the runway. "It's just a rare thing to have three people killed in plane crashed in a two day period," Burnett said.

We spoke to the former chairman of the NTSB. Jim Hall says these types of planes and the pilots typically don't wreck.

"The airmanship we see in Ultralight pilots is fairly good," Hall said. "Their safety record is very good."

The airport manager says these type of planes fly at the airport frequently.

This is the first fatality in Marion County, from this kind of plane, that Sheriff Burnett knew of.

Hall who offered an explanation for the multiple wrecks over the past week.

"This particular time of the year is a more dangerous time to fly," Hall said. "Weather conditions are more difficult. When I was at the NTSB, we routinely would see them in te winter weather."

The victim's body is now in Nashville for an autopsy.