Hearing on jayski that Ricky, (son of Rick Hendrick), John (brother of Rick) and his twinn daugthers and the crew of the plane have all lost their lives in the crash, very sad. Prayers to the familys.
Ya.. I'm there now. Jayski says they crashed into the side of Bull Mountain. Prayers and condolences to the family.
crash Also heard that Randy Dorton (chief engine builder for hendrick) may have been on board.What a tragedy.
TRAGIC NEWS: The son of NASCAR owner Rick Hendrick was among 10 people killed Sunday when a small plane headed from Concord to Martinsville crashed in Patrick County in Virginia. Ricky Hendrick, a former NASCAR driver, died in the incident. John Hendrick, Rick's brother, and Kimberly and Jennifer Hendrick, John's twin daughters, also died in the crash. The plane, which belonged to Hendrick Motorsports, was en route to Martinsville Speedway for Sunday's Subway 500. Jimmie Johnson was driving the Hendrick car in the race and was the winner. The plane reportedly lost contact with the Federal Aviation Administration at about 12:30 p.m. It crashed in the Blue Ridge Mountains about seven miles from Martinsville, Va., according to the N.C. Highway Patrol. The names of the other people who died in the crash are: Dick Tracey, pilot, Liz Morrison, pilot, Joe Jackson, Jeff Turner, the VP and General Manager of Hendrick Motorsports, Randy Dorton and Scott Latham.(wxii12.com)(10-24-2004)
We had instrument conditions in the area today. I saw a program that said Penske had tried to get into that airport today without success today. (I have flown in there myself. ) This incident is consistent with controlled flight into rising terrain. Shooting an instument approach in instrument conditions is serious business. When you are in mountainous terrain like Martinsville it is a life or death situation. It is not commonly known to the public but commercial airlines by company policy direct ILS approaches in these conditions be shot with the aircraft coupled to the autopilot. The pilot is just monitoring the instruments while George does the flying to the deck. The problem is that Martinsville does not have ILS equipment just a localizer, GPS, RNAv and an NDB approach. The upshot is that the airport has horizontal guidance but no precision vertical guidance equipment. Perhaps they got too low trying to press the approach so they could get there. It is interesting that Penske could not get in during the same time frame.
Terrible news indeed! The loss of life is truly painful. I don't want this to come across as sexist, but, it just seems like a woman pilot is frequently on the flight deck when there is a tragedy. I wonder if it is more than coincidence or lack of luck. Ladies, it is just an observation and not meant as an attack. Maybe it goes further than NASCAR people riding in aircraft. Quite a few have died in cars as well. I still haven't recovered from Earnhardt's death enough to follow the NASCAR events to any degree. There is just to much sadness there for me.
Very sad news, I couldn't believe and didn't want to believe that happened. At least Jimmy won the race, that was one thing good that happened in nascar, otherwise after that news got to me I didn't feel very good. My prayers and best wishes go to the victims and family. Very sad day.
