[JYO] Fatal Plane Crash In Loudoun County

_http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10187-2004Nov24.html_ 
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10187-2004Nov24.html) 
 
 

Fatal Plane Crash In  Loudoun County 

Associated Press
Wednesday, November 24, 2004; 3:27 PM  
A small plane that had been cleared to land at a Leesburg airport crashed  
Wednesday in a rural section of Loudoun County, killing two people, authorities 
 
said. 
"The aircraft crashed four miles northwest of the airport. The aircraft was  
destroyed. The two people on board were killed," said Federal Aviation  
Administration spokesman Jim Peters. The plane had left Naples, Fla. 
The cause of the crash was under investigation and the National  
Transportation Safety Board was expected to get involved. It was rainy in the  
area, a 
town named Waterford, about 50 miles northwest of Washington, D.C. 
"Just prior to being cleared to land at Leesburg, the pilot was talking to  
controllers at the FAA facility in Warrenton, Va.," Peters said. The Potomac  
Tracon facility handles all takeoffs and landings in the Washington area. 
"The pilot of the Cessna did not indicate to the controllers at Potomac any  
problems as he was making his approach to Leesburg," Peters said. 
Authorities did not immediately identify the victims, but the FAA said the  
Cessna 310 was registered to Richard F. Meyer III of River Forest, Ill. A  
message left at a phone number listed for Meyer was not immediately  returned. 
"The aircraft is in a small patch of woods adjacent to a single family  
residence. The residence was not damaged in the crash," said Doug Rambo,  
spokesman 
for the Loudoun County Department of Fire and Rescue. He estimated the  house 
was about 30 yards from where the fuselage came to a rest. 
Between July 2002 and March 2003, there were three fatal crashes of planes  
using Leesburg Executive Airport. A total of five people died. 
In April 1997, a teacher from Broad Run High School was one of two people  
killed in a crash in the same area, which authorities said is referred to  
locally as "Leesburg Mountain."  
© 2004 The Associated Press

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