ThatsRacin.com | 10/24/2004 | Ten confirmed dead in Hendrick Motorsports team plane crash

ThatsRacin.com | 10/24/2004 | Ten confirmed dead in Hendrick Motorsports team plane crash: "Ten confirmed dead in Hendrick Motorsports team plane crash

By JIM UTTER KYTJA WEIR AND BINYAMIN APPELBAUM

ThatsRacin.com and The Charlotte Observer


A Hendrick Motorsports plane carrying two pilots and eight other passengers crashed into a mountain Sunday afternoon en route to the Subway 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race in Virginia.
Ten people were confirmed dead, including four relatives of Hendrick Motorsports CEO Rick Hendrick: His son Ricky Hendrick, his brother John Hendrick, and John's twin daughters Jennifer and Kimberly. John, 53, was the president of Hendrick Motorsports. Ricky owned a Busch Series NASCAR team and ran Performance Honda of Pineville, a motorcycle dealership.
Also killed in the crash were five Hendrick Motorsports employees: General Manager Jeff Turner, Randy Dorton, the chief of the company's engine program, engineer Scott Latham and company pilots Dick Tracey and Liz Morrison. The 10th victim was Joe Jackson, an executive with DuPont, which sponsored Jeff Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports car.
The plane had left the Concord Regional Airport, where the company has a hangar, and was headed to the Martinsville, Va., airport for the race where four of the company's teams were competing.
The plane crashed into Bull Mountain, about 10 miles west of the airport, shortly after 12:30 p.m., FAA officials said.
Emergency teams in Patrick County, Va., responded, but the plane appeared to have crashed in a remote area, said Keith Holloway, a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman. Holloway estimated that federal officials wouldn't be able to reach the crash site until Monday morning.
It remains unclear what caused the crash of the Beech 200 King Air plane, he said."

Hendrick Plane Goes Down

A Hendrick Motorsports plane carrying two pilots and eight other passengers crashed into Bull Mountain, about 10 miles west of Martinsville, Va., site of Sunday's Subway 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race, the FAA confirmed. FAA spokeswoman Arlene Murray said a Beech 200 owned by Hendrick left Concord (N.C.) Regional Airport and crashed about 12:30 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, near Martinsville Speedway. There was no news as yet on injuries or fatalities, Murray said. HMS had four teams competing in Sunday's race with drivers #24-Jeff Gordon, #48-Jimmie Johnson, #5-Terry Labonte and #25-Brian Vickers.(ThatsRacin.com)
AND NBC 6 News TV out of Charlotte, NC is reporting live that John Hendrick, Ricky Hendrick and engine builder Randy Dorton were on the airplane.(10-24-2004)