tough news, different perspective

received in email 12.7.04.
James Chase wrote:
PLANE CRASH DEC 2 04 REPORTED BY SURVIVOR HUFF

A detailed report as told to Wally Coe and as reported to Charles Watson.

Wednesday afternoon, December 1, the airplane owned by the Georgia Cumberland Conference of Seventh-day Adventists was dispatched on a journey of mercy. A dying cancer victim was flown to a hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. The plane then returned to its base in Chattanooga. The flight went flawlessly. There was no hint of any problem. The next morning the plane left Chattanooga for Calhoun, Georgia, to pick up its precious cargo of officers of the Conference for a day of special services for members of the clergy in several areas of the State of Tennessee. The first stop was in Collegedale where fifty men were gathered to hear words of encouragement from the lips of David Cress, President of the Conference, and Jerry Frost, the Vice President. Jerry gave the opening address and chose for his biblical passage Colossians 1:13,14 "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.." Little did he know he was reading a prophecy of what was yet to come later in the day.


After lunch in the University cafeteria the group of men were driven to the Collegedale airport and departed in the Conference plane, a Cessna 421, The Golden Eagle. It was a comfortable cabin class plane that had seen many thousands of miles in the work of the church. It had recently undergone a thorough inspection and had been equipped with updated radios to make the flights safer. Dr.Gordon Beitz, President of the University, was invited to go along to the Knoxville appointment but he declined due to a heavy work load. He had flown in that plane many thousands of miles as the former President of the Conference. The lift off was flawless. Gear up-flaps up-climb power set. Then it happened. The right engine simply quit. The plane veered to the right
with the unbalanced thrust with the left engine producing full climb power. The
pilot, John Lazwell, quickly brought the plane back to straight flight and prepared to feather the windmilling prop on the right engine.They were at 300 feet altitude. But mysteriously the remaining working engine could not make the plane climb. This was unusual in that the plane was capable of climbing on one engine and the plane was well under gross weight. Many gallons of fuel had been consumed during the flight from Chattanooga to Collegedale by way of Calhoun, Georgia, and no additional
fuel had been purchased at either stop. (This rules out the probabilityof fuel contamination). There were also two empty seats on the plane. Since it was loosing altitude John tried to pick a pasture to crash land the plane. Unfortunately the descent was too rapid and they missed the pasture hitting a wooded area with the full force of one engine still producing climb power and with a speed of approximately 140 miles per hour. The plane began disintegrating with the impact against the large trees.
First the wings were torn off. The plane started spinning wildly and the tail was sheared off. Jim Huff, the volunteer co-pilot, saw everything imaginable flying by the cockpit window including human bodies. Ahead of his windshield loomed a very large tree, which he expected to hit him right in the face but the plane spun enough so that it got the pilot, John, apparently killing him instantly.


Moments later the flying debris and thundering noises came to rest. In the eerie silence Jim found himself outside the protective metal of the fuselage, sitting in his cockpit seat on the ground. His seat belt was broken but he was still sitting in the seat which in turn was on top of one of the largest pieces of the wreckage, a one foot square piece of metal.

This was one of the largest pieces of metal remaining. The plane virtually disintegrated. All around the plane was a ring of small fires. Jim got up and ran
toward the open field, which was about a hundred feet away. He had to push
aside some burning brush with his bare hand, which gave him third degree burns
on that hand. He staggered into the field and into several residents who
were running toward the crash site. Jim collapsed at their feet. One of them dialed 911 and the Life Force helicopter was dispatched from Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, but it was to prove to be too late. Within five minutes the first of three thunderous explosions was heard from the crash site. Then in quick succession the other two fuel tanks blew up. The flames reached an estimated height of 150 feet. The only significant piece of wreckage was the tail section, which was approximately
one hundred feet from the final resting place of the debris. Jim suffered only a third degree burn on his hand, a broken collar bone and a six inch gash on the calf of his leg apparently from a piece of metal. He did not even hit his head on the windshield. He remembers these details well because he was not knocked unconscious and can recall every second of the impact. He was discharged from the hospital the next day.

Unfortunately the five others did not make it. The dead were Dave Cress,
President of the Conference; Jim Frost, Vice President; Jamie Arnall, Director of Communications; Clay Farwell, Assistant to the President and retired President of the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference; and John Laswell, contract pilot. Dave Cress graduated from Southern Adventist University in 1979 and was also a member of the Board of Trustees. Jamie Arnall graduated from Southern in 1999 as a communication major.