Jogger killed by small plane making emergency landing

[Moongirl]

MSNBC.com
Plane in emergency kills S.C. beach jogger
38-year-old father was listening to iPod when hit from behind in S.C.
The Associated Press
updated 12:03 p.m. PT, Tues., March. 16, 2010


A crew on Tuesday removes an airplane that made an emergency landing Monday on a beach at Hilton Head, S.C. The pilot and his passenger survived, but a man who was jogging was killed.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. - A 38-year-old father of two was jogging and listening to his iPod when he was hit from behind and killed by a small plane making an emergency landing on the beach, officials said Tuesday.

Robert Gary Jones of Woodstock, Ga., died instantly Monday evening when he was hit by the single-engine plane, which had lost its propeller, said Beaufort County Coroner Ed Allen. The pilot's vision was blocked by oil on the windshield.

Jones apparently did not see or hear the plane, which was "basically gliding," the coroner said.

FAA records show the Experimental Lancair IV-P plane was registered to Edward I. Smith of Chesapeake, Va.

Pilot: ‘A lot of issues’
Smith was on the beach with his plane Tuesday and confirmed he was the pilot. He said he didn't want to talk about the crash and offered few details.

"I've got a lot of issues going on right now. I've got a plane that's all torn up. And I've got a young man that I killed," he said.

Authorities said there was also a passenger on board but did not identify him or her.

The plane started leaking oil at about 13,000 feet and tried originally to make it to Hilton Head Airport, said fire and rescue spokeswoman Joheida Fister.

Oil blocked vision
The oil on the windshield blocked Smith's vision and he told authorities the propeller came off. When he tried to land on the beach near the Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa, the plane hit Jones and came to rest a little farther down the beach, Fister said.

Until it was lifted off the beach Tuesday afternoon, the plane sat in the water, waves lapping against it and the tail attached to an anchor with a rope so the tide wouldn't pull it out to sea. The waves had washed away any sign of it skidding across the sand.

Yellow crime scene tape stretched from the water to the dunes to keep people away. Tourists walked up to the tape, gawking and snapping pictures. Other than the missing propeller, the plane appeared undamaged.

The plane left Orlando, Fla., at 4:45 p.m. and was headed for Virginia, Fister said. The four-seater plane has a turbine engine, can be built from a kit and can fly up to 370 mph, according to the Lancair Web site. The IV-P model has a pressurized cabin.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating, Fister said.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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[greysfang]

How loud was the freakin' ipod that he didn't hear a damn plane that close to him? Natural selection at work.

[Grimmlok]

honk your horn next time!

[Laurent]

"I've got a lot of issues going on right now. I've got a plane that's all torn up. And I've got a young man that I killed," he said.

I get the feeling that's the exact order of his concerns too.

[Grimmlok]

without the plane he can't fly away to avoid prosecution

[Brookie]

My thoughts are with the guy's family.

[buttmunch]

How loud was the freakin' ipod that he didn't hear a damn plane that close to him? Natural selection at work.

I think it was gliding, so I assume the engine was cut. I feel bad for the poor jogger, of course, but how awful for the guy who landed on him. That must have been a real 'oh fuck' moment.

[cmmdee]

How loud was the freakin' ipod that he didn't hear a damn plane that close to him? Natural selection at work.

Maybe he was using his iPad to listen to music. It's the size of a small dinette table. Volume must be loud as hell!

[celeb_2006]

Geez, talk about wrong place at the wrong time. Unbelievable.

[celeb_2006]

Beach jogger likely never heard plane - Life- msnbc.com

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. - The kit-built single-engine plane was gliding quietly as it came down for an emergency landing on a beach. Pharmaceutical salesman Robert Gary Jones, listening to his iPod while jogging, likely never saw or heard it before the aircraft hit him from behind and killed him.

"There's no noise," aviation expert Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the National Transportation Safety Board, said of the Monday evening accident. "So the jogger, with his ear buds in, and the plane without an engine, you're basically a stealth aircraft. Who would expect to look up?"

The 38-year-old Jones, whose mother said he was serious about nutrition and exercise, especially jogging, was on a business trip to Hilton Head for GlaxoSmithKline. He was looking forward to getting home to the northern Atlanta suburb of Woodstock, Ga., for his daughter's third birthday Wednesday, Pauline Jones said.

"I was never so shocked in all my life," she said of learning the news, her voice shaking. "They say that God only gives you what you can handle. I said, 'You know what, I've reached my max.'"

The pilot, Edward I. Smith of Chesapeake, Va., and his lone passenger walked away from the crash-landing near the Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa. The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office named the passenger as David Henry, 59, also of Chesapeake, The Island Packet newspaper reported.

Smith was on the beach Tuesday, when the four-seater aircraft was hoisted onto a trailer hitched to a pickup truck and towed away.

"I've got a lot of issues going on right now," Smith said. "I've got a plane that's all torn up. And I've got a young man that I killed."

'Sink like a rock'
The Lancair IV-P aircraft had lost its propeller, with oil smeared all over its windshield, making visibility difficult, authorities said. It was "basically gliding" when it instantly killed Jones, said Ed Allen, the coroner for Beaufort County on the South Carolina coast.

The plane took off from Orlando, Fla., at 4:45 p.m. Monday and was en route to Virginia when it started leaking oil at about 13,000 feet, said Joheida Fister, spokeswoman for Hilton Head Island fire and rescue.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said no cause had been determined. He said the plane would be inspected in Virginia and that investigators would interview the pilot and any witnesses.

"We don't know what occurred, especially since we haven't actually examined the aircraft," Holloway said. "We are still gathering facts."

A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman referred inquiries to the NTSB.

Even with oil smeared on the windshield, Schiavo, the former NTSB official, said Smith should have been able to see through a small window on the side of the plane and possibly yell out to anyone below. Still, there may have been little time to try to avoid hitting the jogger, she said.

She said Smith made the right choice in landing on the beach rather than the water. The aircraft likely wasn't carrying flotation equipment.

"Planes like this sink like a rock," she said.


Deadly landing
The airplane model that killed Jones has a turbine engine, can be built from a kit and can fly up to 370 mph, according to the Lancair Web site. The "fastbuild kit" for the IV-P model, which has a pressurized cabin, is listed as costing $129,000 and is "fully FAA approved," the site says.

The plane "has proven over the years to be very safe, reliable and extremely low in maintenance," the site says.

Joseph Bartels, chief executive officer of Lancair International, the Oregon-based company that produces the aircraft kits, said Tuesday that the kit produces a "light, fast and strong aircraft."

"This particular aircraft is one of about 1,000 sold either as kits or completed," Bartels said, though he added he had no specific knowledge about the airplane that had crashed. His firm does not produce the engine, which is purchased separately, he said.

Bartels, who had seen online news photos of the damaged plane, called the landing "miraculous" given the damage to it, but also expressed sorrow at the deadly outcome.

Jones' mother, who lives in Dunedin, Fla., said he was a wonderful husband to his wife, Jennifer. The couple also has a 5-year-old son.

Pauline Jones said she's going on "borrowed strength."

"It's been very difficult," she said. "I haven't been to bed since I heard. I haven't had any sleep."

[kingcap72]

That sucks. You're minding your business and then you get hit by a plane of all things.

[Kittylady]

So should we take this as proof that people who follow a healthy lifestyle and take plenty of exercise DO die sooner than obese people?

[Brookie]

What are the damn odds? You're away from home, you're the only guy on the beach, you're minding your own business, getting healthy, listening to your favorite tunes, and some clod in an out-of-control plane hits YOU. Not the beach, not the sand, not the vast expanse of the ocean - he hits YOU in the head.

One of the guys in my office is going on vacation soon - to this beach. I told him the new code word for his vacation is "DUCK!".

[buttmunch]

So should we take this as proof that people who follow a healthy lifestyle and take plenty of exercise DO die sooner than obese people?

[Aella]

This is, of course, very sad. Not at all cartoon-like.