Published: February 22, 2008 10:55 pm      

2 killed in plane crash

CUMBERLAND — More than 24 hours after it went missing, authorities found the wreckage of a small plane that disappeared Thursday night while on final approach for a landing at the Greater Cumberland Regional Airport. There were no survivors.

Details about the crash that killed a veteran pilot and a local businessman were released to the media during a 7:30 p.m. Friday press conference at the airport. “This evening at 5:46 p.m. ... Civil Air Patrol ground teams located a crash site of an A-36 Bonanza which had been en route from Charleston, W.Va., to Cumberland ... The crash site is located three miles northeast of the airport,” Col. Kay J. Walling, public information officer for the Civil Air Patrol, said.

Local resident Dave Summerfield of Rawlings was piloting the single-engine Beechcraft when it crashed in a densely wooded area that Walling said search crews had to hike into. Local property developer and businessman Rob Kessel of Bel Air was the only other occupant in the plane.

“The plane did sustain a great deal of damage,” she said, adding that “the fuselage was intact ... the engine and both wings were detached from the fuselage.” Walling said the plane also sustained fire damage.

Darkness and poor weather conditions hampered the search effort Thursday in night, forcing police and volunteers to wait until Friday morning to begin searching. “We started very early this morning, before daybreak, sending ground team members out to different airports to make sure that they had not landed somewhere else and then the full search got underway at daybreak this morning,” Walling said.

As the bad weather continued into Friday, it continued to interfere, allowing only minimal searching to be done from the air. Of the seven CAP planes in West Virginia and another 12 in Maryland, “none ... were able to launch because of the weather conditions,” Walling said.

Ultimately, the wreckage was discovered using “11 significant leads (with) information that fit with what we know had happened,” and a “very weak” signal from the plane’s Emergency Locator Transmitter that led the searchers to the site. Walling said searchers “literally ... had to ... tromp through the snow shoulder-to-shoulder looking for the crash site.”

Summerfield and Kessel flew to Charleston early Thursday on business and were preparing to land when all contact was lost with the aircraft. The plane departed Yeager Airport at 6:48 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive at 7:55 p.m.

“Cleveland Center acknowledged they were on final approach at 8:02 p.m. The center then told Summerfield radar contact was lost, which is normal procedure,” said Airport Manager Terry Malone.

The final contact was made “just north of Rocky Gap,” said Malone.

Because “they were right there ready to land,” Walling said, “we knew they were very, very close.”

The owner of the 1981 aircraft is BZM LLC of New Castle, Pa., according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s online registry. Malone said the airplane “had good maintenance records.”

Search efforts were coordinated by John Henderson of the Civil Air Patrol, with nearly 200 CAP members in the search. The exercise also involved authorities in Maryland and nearby West Virginia and Pennsylvania as well as numerous volunteer fire companies in all three states. Walling said CAP members in Ohio and Virginia were also standing by, prepared to help if called up.

“It’s one of the most intensive searches I’ve ever seen,” Rick Kight, a friend of Summerfield’s and a fellow pilot, said from the airport terminal Friday afternoon.

Former pilot Jim Cookman of Petersburg, W.Va., said the aircraft is the same type he used to own and is not equipped with de-icing equipment on the wings. The propellers do have a rubber-leading edge from the factory, Cookman said, and there are some after-market options for de-icing the wings. It’s unknown if the aircraft Summerfield was flying had any of those additions.

Cookman, who said he had hired Summerfield to fly him places “a time or two,” said Summerfield was a “very competent pilot.”

CAP crews will remain at the crash site for security reasons, until the National Transportation Safety Board releases the site. Members of the NTSB are expected to arrive about 9 a.m. Saturday, and will likely spend 24 to 48-hours conducting an investigation at the wreckage site, Walling said.

Thursday night’s incident marked the second time in four months that an aircraft has gone down near the airport.

On Oct. 14, 2007, a plane piloted by Earl Wilson Jr. of Fort Ashby, W.Va., crashed into a barn along Scenic Lane in Mineral County, W.Va., about four miles southeast of the airport. Wilson, along with his wife, Sharon, and Gary and Carol Athey of LaVale, died shortly after taking off in their Aero Commander en route to Atlantic City, N.J.