Skydiving airplane crashes; four die
JEANNETTE, Pa. (AP) – A skydiving plane crashed as it was taking off from a small western Pennsylvania airport, killing four of the five men aboard, including the pilot, authorities said. The fifth man survived the crash but the extent of his injuries was not immediately known.
The Cessna 205 crashed about 1:15 p.m. at Greensburg Jeannette Regional Airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac said. The plane was being used for a skydiving operation, she said.
The cause of the crash was under investigation.
Westmoreland County Coroner Kenneth A. Bacha identified two of the men who died as Charles Bryant, 61, of Greensburg and David Ray, 49, of Seward. Bryant, who owned the plane, was not piloting at the time of the crash.
Bacha did not identify the other two men who died, pending notification of their families. He said one was a man of unknown age from West Newton. The pilot was a 52-year-old Pittsburgh man, Bacha said.
Authorities said the injured man was taken to Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, which refused to confirm that he was there.
Bacha said all of the men died of blunt force trauma. An autopsy was to be performed on the pilot, as were toxicology tests required by FAA rules, he said.
Authorities said the plane, which was built in 1963 and designed for up to five passengers, had taken a skydiving flight earlier in the day and was on its second flight when the plane crashed. Bacha said witnesses in the area heard the plane’s engine sputter and cut out before the crash.
Ron Supancic, chief of the Claridge Volunteer Fire Department, said the crash occurred about 100 feet from the runway at the airport, formerly known as Pittsburgh Boquet Airpark, which is in Jeannette, about 20 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Supancic said the man who survived the crash was found 10 to 15 feet from the plane.
Supancic, who lives about a quarter-mile from the airport, said he was getting ready to mow his lawn when he heard the plane and watched it trying to gain altitude. He said the engine didn’t sound right, and then he saw the pilot bank left, then right, as if he were trying to return to the airport.
Supancic got into a vehicle, not waiting to see if the plane went down. By the time he reached the scene, he saw the plane, which had turned over, with a wing missing and a section of the fuselage torn off.
Four people were in the cabin.
The aircraft apparently clipped four trees when it crashed, Supancic said. There was no fire or smoke associated with the crash, he said.
A notice for Chuck Bryant’s Skydive Bouquet in Greensburg, listed on a skydiving Web site, describes it as a family-run company with a Cessna 205 that specializes in teaching skydiving to new students but can also accommodate experienced jumpers.
“He was just a good person. He was a good skydiver, a good pilot,” said Bryant’s son, Rodney Bryant, 37, of Greensburg. “Nobody could have asked for a better father.”
Rodney Bryant said his father, who retired as a machinist about 11/2 years ago, had 30 years of skydiving experience and had made more than 3,000 jumps. His father had operated the business for about 10 years and had the plane for about the same period, he said.
“That airplane was one of the best-maintained jump planes in the sport,” Rodney Bryant said. The pilot was experienced and had made skydiving flights with his father before, he said.
“He (the pilot) must have definitely thought he could have made it back here because there are fields all over the place,” Rodney Bryant said.