Sun, Nov 28, 2004
Family saw crash that killed father and son,
aircraft ended up on in-laws' back yard
Yesterday, ANN reported a tragic accident in
Winona (MS) that killed a father and his 9-year-old son when
their 1953 Cessna 195 hit a pole on an abandoned race
track. We honestly thought it was too much of a coincidence
that the aircraft struck a pole that was standing in property owned
by the pilot's family, but we didn't have any other information, so
we decided to report it as we were told it happened.
It now turns out that the accident may have been caused by a
pilot trying to impress family members by buzzing the home where
they were gathered for a Thanksgiving dinner.
The relatives of Timothy Mitchell were watching him fly overhead
with his son, Timothy Adam Mitchell. They said he hit a power line
with one of his wheels.
"The family had gathered for Thanksgiving and they were flying
in from Tim's parents' house in McCool," said Chastity Sawyer, a
cousin of Tim Mitchell's wife, Tina, to the Mississippi
Clarion-Ledger. "He was going to fly over the house so that all the
other kids could see the plane," Sawyer said. "But the plane hit a
power line, the line got caught in the tire. The plane went nose up
and crashed."
Mitchell had flown earlier in the day with his daughter Christy,
16, and other family children. The site of the crash turned out
to be his in-laws' back yard, according to Montgomery
County Coroner Karl Oliver. "It was about 30 yards from their
house," he said. "This shows the fragility of human life."
The FAA is continuing its investigation into the crash,
according to FAA spokesperson Kathleen Bergen. "We don't release
preliminary information," said Bergen.
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