Newspapers / Morrisville and Preston Progress … / Nov. 29, 1995, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of Morrisville and Preston Progress (Morrisville, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
y 2 - The Morrisville and Preston Progress, Wednesday, November 29,1995 Rescue workers, volunteers share memories of Eagle plane crash Continued from page 1 ing around in a daze. Strips of trees were in flames. Badham found one man, pinned under a section of fuselage, who told him something was crushing down on his chest That man was 60-year-old Don Merkel of Wheaton, m. "He was so polite about it” Stan ley recalls. "He said, ‘Sir, would you please consider...’ like he didn’t want to impose." Merkel sustained a broken arm, multiple rib fractures, a bruised lung and a left elbow fracture. Badham managed to free him. Unlike Lewis, Merkel says he doesn’t mind speaking of the crash today. He says his condition is im proving and that he’s back K) work full time as an assistant vice- president of mariceting research for a Chicago-based insurance compa ny. He says the job includes con siderable air travel. "As for that night my mind is just a blank," be says. "I dcm’t re member any warning that the plane was going down. "I have no memory of that eve ning other than what I’ve been told," Merkel says. He doesn’t re member being carried by board through the dense underl^sh, or when one of the volunteers told him be was sorry the torches were bitting him as they ran and stumbled with him through the woods. He told them be didn’t care as long as they got him out of there. Taking charga Morrisville Fire Chief Tony Chiotakis was driving along High way 54 with his two children, 9 and 13, when bis pager sounded. The chief dn^jped the children off at home, then sped to the scene. "I ex pected a small engine plane, per- h^s two or three people involved," he says. "Never what I found." Obtain David Ferrell arrived be fore the chief. Ferrell had been at his Morrisville Parkway home when bis pager was activated. He went directly to the crash site. When Chiotakis set up the com mand post, Forell bec^e the op erations officer. Chiotakis points out that all fire, police and EMS personnel are trained under the same system—the Wake CounQr Incident Command System. It calls for specific actions in such emergencies and three phases of operation: response, sta bilization and security. Part of the job when in a response mode is "not to get excited, to con centre" the chief points out. "Looking back, I believe we did our jobs pretty good," Chiotakis says. "At one point later in the night, or maybe early morning, I opened the back hatch of my vehicle to get out of the rain, and looked out at the command area where little groups of people were doing their jobs. It reminded me of a football huddle where you get the plan of attack, individual assign ments, break to positions and create." Chiotakis remained at the scene until 4 a.m. and returned two and a half hours 1^ after taking a rest Twenty-four of the department’s 25 members were on hand. The other was out of town. A tastaoffuel Dale and Debbie Powell saw a series of small fires when they reached the crash scene. "They were flickering—like a movie set" Mrs. Powell says. She is a nurse; he was a volunteer with the Morris ville Fire Department at the time. They were at their home on High way 55 when they heard of the cra^. Each grabb^ a coat and a flashlight drove as close to the seme as conditions allowed, then went on foot through the woods. "We nev^ got a whole perspec tive of the scene until portable lighting arrived,” she says. Lewis. He was dead." She recalls it was raining and the drops were hitting hw face. "I re member tasting the drq>s aooss my lips," she says. "It was diesel fuel." Rain was a biassing Carolyn and Martin Howard heard a bocun and then saw a big ball of fire as they rushed out the front door of their home oa Kop- pers Road. They thought it mi^t be a car crash around the bend of the road or maybe a gas explosion at the nearby Triangle Brick Co. Meanwhile, their friends nearby, Sue Phillips, who is a nurse, and her husband, Lee, beard the noise and ran upstairs where their four children were playing. They thought furniture bad been turned over. When a call to 911 told them a plane bad crashed, they didn’t think twice. "They may need our help," Sue said. "Let’s get there." Martin Howard and the Phillips drove to the site in the Phillips’ 4-wheel- drive farm truck. It proved a smart move. The billy terrain was slippery with mud and the thick wcxkIs made it almost impossible for a light truck to get ba«k and forth m Debbie reached one of the pas sengers who was still str^jped in his passenger seat. It was Ron Lewis. "He was wearing a three- piece business suit and I asked him where he hurt He was bleeding from his left leg," she says. "He asked me, ‘Where’s Bill?’ Bill turned out to be Bill Peters, a co- woikCT with Lewis at Sears. Lewis told me his friend was in 3-C. Bill was lying outside, just below Diary of accident describes eerie site Continued from page 1 side and put his coat over him to shield him from the elements. East of the fuselage approximate ly 15 feet there was a fire. I could identify no parts of die plane in or behind the fire but I could see knocked-over trees burning. The fire was about four to five feet high and 20 feet long. I heard a small explosion that startled us. Between the fire and the fuselage on the north side was a mangled propeller. It was standing up and one of the tips was curled up. I barely touched it but it was very sharp because I managed to cut my finger slightly on it At the edge of the fire there was a man lying face down beaded toward the fuselage. He ^ipeared to be dead. His whole body was gro tesquely swollen and a cut on bis left calf was open a few iiKhes. His shoes were missing and he was on fire in various locations. The seams of his pants had burst open. David said be was gone so I left him alone. Next I beard a man call out from underneath the north side of the fuselage. He said very calmly that something was pressing on bis chest and could I help him. I walked around to the open end of the fuselage and removed a blue carry-on bag and a few pieces of sheet metal that rested on h>p of this man. By this time (some five to 10 minutes later) a third person bad ar rived and he advised me to watch where I was throwing the sheet metal because I was throwing it near another person who I had not seen. This man was on his right side stUI buckled in bis seat His shirt was pulled up a little and I could see his stomach moving as he breathed. He wasn’t saying any thing or moaning. I couldn’t think of anything I could do to help him. The man trying to get out of the fuselage called out again very politely, as I recall, so I stepped in side the fuselage to try to pull off whatever was leaning on the man, I was able to shift something and he said not to let that down. It seemed stable so I turned my attention to a woman in the fuselage who was still buckled in her seat at a 45- degree angle with her bands and feet pointed downward. She seemed to be coming in and out of consciousness. Once she awoke, she acted very anxious as she flailed her arms frantically and muttered something indiscernible, then went limp. I reached to un buckle her belt but could not locate it I realized that if I released it she would fall so I decided to leave her alone. 1 mentioned to David that I was concerned about the fire, that it might spread. There ^jpeared to be fuel everywhere. I moved a few small pine branches away from the fuselage. The man who was trying to escape was also aware of the fire and was eager to get free from the wreckage. I tried to make a larger opening in the plane so he could crawl out. I vaguely remember a motionless woman’s band coming out of the wreckage near this man. He asked politely for my help several times and I told him I didn't want to hurt him but if the fire got any closer I would pull him out He asked if bis face had blood on it and I told him it did but it wasn’t too bad. He told me that be could not believe th^ this was happening. I agreed. I removed his necktie, which was yellow and blood stained. Finally I pulled away enough of the plane to create a hole large enough for him to crawl out and away to the northwest. By now I had been there approxi mately 15 minutes and the first fire man arrived, David FCTrell. I heard Citizens stick up for mayor Continued from page 1 Melvin Barnes a^ed the board to outline the responsibilities of the mayor and received a Ixiefing frxmi the town attorney. Many of the approximately 75 people in attendance broke out in applause twice before Sauls re quested that such responses be held until the end of the public com ments. "I’m very pleased so many people care enough to come and sp^ out," Ms. Broadwell said after the board went into closed session. "1 don’t presume to know what the board might do. "It won’t stop me from being an effective mayor if they don’t! reconsider," she said, "but it would; make my job easier. The public should have a mayor’s office in a Town Hall that cost $2 million." Ms. Broadwell said she bad not heard from Sauls since the election. "We last talked in May after Mayor (Ernest) Lumley resigned," she said. "I called him (Sauls) and others on the board to tell them 1 would serve if they wanted me." The mayor-elea will be sworn in Dec. 11 along with Mark Silver smith, who won the District 3 seat vacated by Ufferman. Silver-Smith defeated ternary Johnston 153 to 134. Ms. Broadwell, who served two four-year terms on the board before losing the 1993 mayor’s race, was rebuffed in her attempt to have "The Impossible Dream" sung at the swearing-in coemony. Sauls, calling that idea "tacky," did agree to her request for. a color guard, the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, and having the oaths of office administered by a judge of ho'choice. him say on bis portable phone that it was definitely a plane crash and there were a lot of injuries and we needed lots of help. Looking down the hole in the fuselage I saw a man facing me leaning up against the side. We established eye contact His eyes were very widely open and bis face was expressionless. He bad a small stream of blood down the right side of bis face. He bad on a white shirt and a black coat I have a vague recollection of a per son dressed similarly next to him but slumped over. I thought they were in the forward-most part of the plane and I believed them to be the pilots (inawrectly as it turns out). Although I could establish a line of sight with him, I could not get to him. I asked him how he was and he did not reply. At the time 1 thought that be might be acting v^ calm because he was trained to do so. He appeared to be com fortable. I proceeded around to the southwest side of the fuselage and located a woman lying on her left side. She was complaining that her back hurt. Also, she wanted to lo cate her shoes. I told her that was not genng to be a problem. I asked her how many pec^le were on the plane but she did not answer. By now I had been there 25 to 30 minutes and several rescue people arrived along with at least one policeman. The policeman asked for a light and I gave him mine as I was using the light of the fire to see by. I pointed out the man in the fire to the medical person and he and I pulled him free of the fire by his arms. I bad the unsettling thought that bis arms might come detached. As the medical person went to check on others, I took a piece of debris and used it to swat out the fire on him. I asked the policeman if we should remove his identifica tion. He said leave it, so I did. I heard a message over David Fer rell’s radio that anyone without protective clothing should be asked to leave. Shortly thereafter, David relayed that message to me and I walked home the way I bad come. The wreckage turned out to be 200 to 300 yards from my yard. I bad three drinks when I got home, called a few friends and family and took a hot bath. I gave my first telephone interview at 9:30 pjn. I answered calls until about 12:30, slept very little, and was awakened about 6:30 a.m. by the press. I talked to numerous press people for the next two days. I was feeling very somber and did not feel like doing interviews for TV. I did think it was healthful to tell the story as I recalled it. I was lat^ chained to read some stories drat made me sound heroic. I did not do anything that any ordinary person would not have done. If a plane clashed near your bouse you would go to it; if people called out for help you would try to help. the crash site. "We asked if we could help," said Sue, "but were told ‘probably not.’ Then Dave Stanley came running from the woods, yelling th^ more people were needed, that more bodies had been uncovered and they had to be carried." During the night, Mrs. Phillips made three trips to the EMS station that bad been set up outside the woods. "The bodies were put in back of our pickup truck,” she ex plained. She remembers helping survivors Lewis, Merkel and John Ciulla, whose wife of only one year was killed in the crash, and several others who would not survive. "When you think back, you im agine that we were fortunate that it was raining so much," she said. "Everything was covered with diesel fuel. The smell was every where—on the clothes, the ground, the trees, the plane parts. Without that rain everything could have gone up in flames. It’s a scary thcHight." A mother says thanks When Karen French got the word on her pager, she headed for Mor risville Fire Station No. 1 to get the 4-wheel-drive brush truck. A volunteer firefighter employed by a home care business in ^eigh, she and volunteer Ray Tyndall were amtxig the first on the scene. They used the vehicle to block off the roadway to help the state troopers secure the area. Both jumped in Rory Meacham’s farm trutk. Police SgL Earl Godwin got in the back and they rode toward the scene. The truck got stuck, however, and they had to go in by foot, carrying equipment. Muddy and wet, they began pull ing bodies out of the wreckage. Ms. French helped pull out two and got them to the workers for atten tion. "Later, when it was all over and we were back to routine life, one of the mothers of the men I helped get to EMS thanked me, even though the man had died," Ms. French recalls. "I didn’t want my baby to die alone," the mother said. Ms. French told her be didn't— that she tried to comfort him and held him when he was extricated. The mother later sent her flowers. "What an overwhelming sense of loss," says Ms. French. "To see them, know they are somebody’s father or somebody’s son, that somebody loved and cherished tb^. "You learn to live wifli the fact that we’re all going to die. This sort of thing makes you face that fact, reflect that every day is precious, every minute, every second is pre cious. You learn to live life with a greater understanding of what life really means." Painful Continued from page 1 son, Chris, from his job at a pizza parlor after the game, but found Chris bad already left when be got there. Chris bad learned of the aasb from a television report. He tel ephoned his father at school, but was told he couldn’t be reached because he was with the team. Workers at the pizza parlor told Chris’s father what had happened. And^son said he raced to the airport, trying to keep control of his feelings. "But I’ll admit I e}q)ected the worst," he said. "Most people are killed in plane crashes. "Lauren had fex some reason stuck an Eton ID card in her pullover," Anderson said. "That’s how she was identified. She was found lying against a tree in the rain and mud, cov ered with diesel fuel, and mut tering for someone to ‘Please tell my mother.”' Lauren was taken to the Duke Medical Center intensive care unit. When her parents and brother arrived the following morning, she was rigid in bed. "There were rods in her spine and her lung bad coll^sed. Her body was twice the normal size from the impact," her father said. "They told us the plane was dropping 200 miles per hour when it hit ground. She had a compound fracture of the left leg, Iwoken bones in her spine, internal injuries and all bones in her face were broken." Seven weeks later, Lauren returned to college only because everyone felt it would be best to live as normally as possible. "She manages to walk and get around campus with crutches, but the rods still remain in her spine," her father said. "She’s b^ome an older woman. She’s bent and moves slowly. She’s a sophomore, but she’s been cheated out of her college years." ORIENTAL K "Raleigh’s Oldest & Largest Rug Store" 1665 N. Market Dr. MacGregor Village Raleigh, NC Cary, NC 872-6537 460-3113 Beverly Hills How Much Will You Weigh For The Holidays? • Stressed? • Depressed? • Obsessed? • Can’t Wear That Dress? WE CAN HELP!!! 6 WEEKS ONLY $9.00 PER WEEK (supplements not Included) Call Today! North Station near Hudson Belk Outlet Center • Garner 772-4700 Free Consultation & In-House Financing e 'he on! NationsBank is proud to grow with Gary. Our new banking center opens in the Cornerstone Shopping Center Monday, December 11. Come celebrate and take advantage of our grand opening offers. $200 Off Closing Costs. Take out a home equity or home improvement loan, or finance or refinance a morT gage at our Cornerstone Banking Center, and we’ll cut your closing costs or origination fee by $200.* Coupon is required. Offer eiqsires March 29,1996. 1/4% Discount On First Order Of Auto Loans. Chocks Free. I Get 1/4% off our new car I loan rates when you ! present this coupon. Offer I expires March 29,1996. Present this coupon when you open a new personal checking accoimt and your first 200 standard checks are free. Offer expires March 29,1996. Cornerstone Banking Center 1931 High House Road (Comer of Davis Drive) Caiy, NC 27513 (919) 829-6500 NarionsBank Official Sponsor 1996 US. Olympic Iham USA "A home equity line is avaiUible only for one- to jbur-family primary residences. Your loan will be secured by a rrwrtgage lien on your home. The variable Annual Percentage Rate (APR) will be the latest Prime Rate as published in the Wall Street Journal (8.75% as of 1012/95) plus a percentage. The APR/or lines up to $14,999 is Prime plus 2% or 10.75% as of 10/2/95; for lines from $15,000 to $49,999, Prime phis 1% or 9.75% as of 10/2/95; and for lines greater than $50,000, Prime plus 1/2% or 9.25% as of 1012/95. Rale cannot rise above 18%. However, there is no limit on the amount by which the rate may increase beneath this rate cap. Property or flood insurance may be required. A home equity loan may not be used to purchase or refinance a primary residence or for any commercial purchases. NationsBank will pay closing costs up to $200. A limited time offer. Loans are subject to approval; normal credit standards apply. Grand opening offers ate available only at the Cornerstone Banking Center. Natior%sBank,NA. Member FDIC. til Equal Housing Lender. 61995 NationsBank Corporation.
Morrisville and Preston Progress (Morrisville, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 29, 1995, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75