
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 23, 1993                   TAG: 9311230147
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Boston Globe
DATELINE: NORTHAMPTON, MASS.                                LENGTH: Medium

PILOT AT FAULT IN FATAL CRASH WITH SKY DIVER

The single-engine airplane that was struck by a sky diver Sunday night and plunged 7,000 feet, killing its pilot and three passengers, mistakenly had flown into air space reserved for jumps, officials said Monday.

The sky diver, who broke his ankle, hit the airplane's vertical stabilizer shortly after jumping from another aircraft whose pilot was following proper procedures by maintaining radio contact with air-traffic controllers, officials said.

It appeared that the pilot of the wrecked airplane, a Cherokee Piper Warrior II, may have been confused; a map was found in the cockpit after the accident, authorities said.

The pilot apparently did not have his radio tuned to the proper frequency to pick up broadcast warnings about the designated jump zone, which extends about 4 miles from the airport in all directions when sky divers are active, they said.

"We do not know if the Piper was in communication with anyone," said Jeffrey Guzzetti, an air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

Officials said the plane was returning students to Boston from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., when the collision occurred at about 2:30 p.m. above Northampton Airport on the banks of the Connecticut River.

The sky diver, Alfred E. Peters, 51, of Westfield, was in stable condition at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, officials said.

Guzzetti, who interviewed Peters Monday, said Peters was the first of five jumpers to leave the jump plane at an altitude of 7,800 feet. He said Peters, an experienced Army sky diver with more than 38 jumps this year, believed the collision occurred at about 7,000 feet.

Guzzetti said the pilot of the jump plane did not see the Piper until he was turning back toward the airport to begin his landing. The pilot told Guzzetti he saw the Piper spinning about 500 feet from the ground, but Guzzetti said investigators did not know the altitude at which the plane went out of control.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB