Fatal landing at Coopers field

[Grumpy]

This past Tuesday a FIXED wing ultralight crashed at Cooper's field between Greeneville and Morristown Tennessee killing the pilot.
All the info I have is that his best friend who witnessed the incident said that the right wind folded at about 500 feet.
Jim Macleay who recently joined this forum should have additional info if he'd be willing to share it as he flies from that field.
Check out the picture and artical (if you can find it) Greeneville sun (Tennessee) newspaper, front page, for wednesday June 9th.

[Grumpy]

Sun Photo by Phil Gentry
Greene County Sheriff Steve Burns, standing at center with his back to the camera, watches as Greeneville Emergency & Rescue Squad volunteers work to free the body of the pilot from the wreckage of an ultralight aircraft that crashed Tuesday night off Fish Hatchery Road in far western Greene County.


By: By BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
06-09-2004

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The pilot of an “ultralight” aircraft was killed Tuesday night when it crashed in a wheat field beside the grass runway of a private airstrip along Fish Hatchery Road in far western Greene County.

County Sheriff Steve Burns said at the scene about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday that the pilot, later identified as Raymond Frederick Huddleston, 45, had been killed when the small yellow aircraft smashed nose-first into the ground near Cooper Field.

“According to witnesses, he was in the air when the plane started to twist and turn at about 500 feet and came straight down into the ground,” Burns said.

The sheriff said the wreckage was removed from the scene on Tuesday night and will be stored for later inspection.

Witness Recounts Crash

Al Vestweber, a Flea Ridge Road resident, said at the scene on Tuesday night that he and his girlfriend, Christine Hanson, witnessed the crash from outside a hangar at Cooper Field where his own ultralight aircraft was parked.

Vestweber described Huddleston as his “best friend.” He said Huddleston had been flying a Hipps Superbird ultralight that had been built from a kit.

Vestweber said Huddleston had been flying ultralight aircraft for years and had purchased the small yellow aircraft from another pilot about a year and a half ago. Huddleston had purchased and flown the aircraft despite knowing that its right wing had internal damage, according to Vestweber.

However, Vestweber said he believed that separation of the fabric covering from the top of the right wing, not internal damage, resulted in the fatal crash.

Huddleston, according to Vestweber, had been diving steeply and pulling up sharply prior to the Tuesday night crash.

He said his attention was drawn to Huddleston’s aircraft when he heard a strange noise.

“I thought he was just going around in circles, and I was trying to figure out what that noise was until he went around and then I could see that fabric flapping when the angle got right,” Vestweber said. “Then, when he tried to slow down, boy, that’s when he lost it.”

Vestweber said it appeared to him that until Huddleston attempted to slow the aircraft, he had some measure of control over it — despite the separation of the fabric covering from the top of its right wing.

But as the aircraft slowed, Vestweber said, its right wing apparently lost lift and caused it go out of control and crash nose-first into a wheat field off the the end of Cooper Field’s grass runway not far from the Nolichucky River.

Sheriff Burns said at the scene on Tuesday night that because of its size and design, the aircraft was not classified as an “airplane” by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Therefore, the sheriff said, an FAA official had told him that the federal agency did not plan to conduct an investigation of the fatal crash.

Kevin Ayers, captain of the Greeneville Emergency & Rescue Squad, said nine squad volunteers responded to the crash scene along with a pair of Greene County-Greeneville Emergency Medical Services ambulances and units of the McDonald Volunteer Fire Department and the Sheriff’s Department.

At the scene, Ayers said, squad volunteers used a small “hydraulic cutter” to free the victim from the wreckage. He noted that volunteer firefighters stood by with a fire hose as a precaution against the outbreak of fire.

“There was a strong odor of gasoline at the scene," said Ayers, noting that the hydraulic cutter was used because it was unlikely to cause sparks that could cause a fire.

Address Undetermined

Greene County Medical Investigator Ray Crum, who went to the crash scene Tuesday night, said this morning that he had been unable to determine Huddleston’s address.

He said that although Huddleston’s driver’s license listed his address as Sevierville, witnesses said Huddleston had moved recently and was believed to have been living near Interstate 40’s exit 412 in Jefferson County.

Crum said Huddleston’s only local relative is a sister who resides in Morristown. “The rest of his family is in Georgia,” Crum said.

Huddleston’s body will be sent to the Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City for an autopsy, Crum added.