[JYO] Crash Photo and Tail number released, N1005P

One Killed In Plane Crash Near Airport
<A HREF="mailto:editor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";>Norman K. Styer</A> 



Mar 20, 2003 -- One person was killed in the crash of a single engine plane 
behind a row of houses just north of Leesburg Executive Airport shortly 
before 8 p.m. It is the third fatal plane crash in Leesburg in the past nine 
months. Witnesses said the 2-seat 2002 Mooney aircraft was coming in for a 
landing at the town airport when the crash occurred. Some reported hearing 
the engine cut out before the aircraft fell to the ground in the backyard of 
a home in the 300 block of Whipp Drive in the Stratford subdivision. 

Little information was available immediately. Virginia State Police are 
investigating the crash. Representatives of the National Transportation 
Safety Board were en route. 

According to FAA records, the plane left Youngstown, OH at 6:36 p.m. and was 
scheduled to land in Leesburg at 7:36 p.m., a 195-mile flight. The last FAA 
data shows the plane at 1,100 feet, traveling at 62 knots 1.3 miles from the 
airport. 

The M20R airplane is registered to FMR Consulting LLC in Warren, OH. The 
registration certificate was issued Feb. 10. 

Many of the emergency personnel and town leaders on the scene tonight 
expressed disbelief and bewilderment that another fatal crash could occur 
just 19 days after three people were killed in a crash in the town historic 
district. Airport Manager Doug McNeely, Town Manager Robert S. Noe and 
Councilman Frank Buttery were on the scene, as was longtime Airport 
Commission member Stanley Caulkins. All were at a lost to explain the string 
of unrelated fatal crashes in town. 

As with the last two crashes in Leesburg, the plane fell in a residential 
neighborhood but did not strike a home or person on the ground. Residents 
were evacuated from the area, a relatively new section in the subdivision 
located in the southeast quadrant of the Leesburg Bypass/Sycolin Road 
intersection. 

In the March 1 crash that killed the pilot, co-pilot and a passenger, the 
plane was trying to land in heavy fog and crashed into the backyard on Ayr 
Street, just feet from a 2-story brick home. In the fatal crash last July, a 
plane experiencing engine trouble and attempting an emergency landing at Ida 
Lee Park crashed in a driveway on Tudor Court, killing the pilot.

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