A Florida pilot heading to Emporia’s Tandem Wing Fly-in died Friday morning in a crash near Branson, Mo..
Tom Currie, 48, of New Port Richey, Fla., crashed shortly after takeoff, according to The Branson Daily News. Several witnesses saw his Windler Socoy Steven Tri-Q2 — a homebuilt single-engine two seater plane — go down just after 9 a.m. in the 1,500 acre Ruth and Paul Henning State Conservation Area.
The Tandem Wing Fly-In, which had most of its major events on Saturday, features kit-built tandem planes from across the country. A tandem plane has one long wing called a “canard” in front of the cockpit and another wing in back. This was the event’s first year at the Emporia Municipal Airport after 15 years in Ottawa.
Organizer Spud Spornitz of Olathe told The Gazette that this would have been Currie’s first year at the fly-in. Currie had planned to pick up a female friend in Kansas City and then fly on to Emporia.
“By the time you picked her up, it would have been maybe an hour and a half to Emporia — probably more like an hour,” Spornitz said.
The fly-in’s awards banquet included a few moments of silence in honor of Currie.
“It’s never a good deal,” Spornitz said.
Authorities have not said what caused the crash. Currie had repaired a loose propellor blade and an oil leak before takeoff.
Jerry Adams, Branson’s city communications director, told the Daily News that Currie was trying to turn around at the time of the crash.
Walter Wasson, a former aviation technician in the U.S. Navy, told The Springfield News-Leader that he was on his way to work when he saw the plane go down.
“I think the pilot was in physical trouble because the engine went silent,” he told the News-Leader. “Usually, if there’s a problem with a radial engine, they sputter.”
Two private planes and two helicopters from nearby hospitals were used to help locate the crash site, a search made difficult by the wooded and hilly terrain. Police told the Daily News that much of the ground searching was done with all-terrain vehicles but that the last 30 minutes had to be done on foot.
“The land is very treacherous,” Capt. Scotty Penner of the Branson Police Department told the Daily News. “There is a lot of steep hills, rocky terrain and densely wooded areas.”
The plane was finally located at 10:45 a.m. Friday. More than 100 people helped search for the craft.
According to The Branson Daily News, this is the second crash in the conservation area since 1999. On Dec. 9 of that year, a Cessna 525 crashed there, killing six, just before it was to land at what is now Taney County Airport at College of the Ozarks. Federal authorities determined that the pilot had descended below the minimum altitude for that segment of his GPS approach. Low ceilings, rain and pilot fatigue were ruled to have contributed to the accident.