911 Tape of Transylvania Plane Crash Released

The woman who found the plane calls 911 and describes the scene.

PENROSE — Officials began investigating on Tuesday a plane crash near the Transylvania County Airport that killed two local men.

Duane Sorenson, 59, of Pisgah Forest, and Richard Norton, 63, of Brevard, died in the crash.

The plane was flying unusually low while attempting to land on Monday, clipped a tree and crashed, Transylvania Community Airport owner Ken Allison said Tuesday. He speculated mechanical problems may be at fault, as the men were experienced pilots.

"It is highly unusual for a plane to fly that low," Allison said.

The two-seater, single-engine plane was about to land at around 4:30 p.m.

Allison said the airport lost communication with the pilots before they made their final approach announcement. Allison said pilots make three announcements before landing: That they were entering the airport environment, that they were in a traffic pattern and finally the approach announcement. That last call was not heard. Allison said the plane was flying extremely low and clipped a poplar tree, sending it into the ground. The plane was found by neighbors in a nearby horse pasture off Old Hendersonville Road.

One of the men was a flight instructor, Allison said. Information on who was flying was not available.

The bodies of the two men were removed early Monday evening. Tuesday morning, the plane remained at the crash site as Federal Aviation Administration official Jan McDougald began her investigation with assistance from the Transylvania County Sheriff's Office, emergency management and the National Transportation Safety Board.

The craft was barely recognizable as investigators gathered debris and took photographs. Tree limbs were tangled in the mangled metal of what was once a cockpit and broken pieces of the airplane were strewn about the area. About 30 yards away, the large tree the plane smashed through still had broken limbs dangling from its foliage high in the sky.

Crews began removing the wreckage from the horse pasture owned by veterinarians Andrew and Rebecca Broadbent around noon Tuesday. Courteny McDowell lives near the airstrip and told Times-News partner WSPA, "I was doing paperwork that sounded like a large pieces of lumber breaking cracking." McDowell said she worries about safety near the air strip. "This is the third or fourth accident and the fourth person killed that I know of. You're outside and you see them sorta teeter in the air and you always wonder are they going to make it," she said.

By early Tuesday afternoon, the NTSB was not on site but was in coordination with authorities, said Chief Detective Brian Kreigsman with the Sheriff's Office.
"We haven't found a whole lot," Kreigsman said.

By late afternoon on Tuesday, Emergency Management Coordinator Kevin Shook said there was nothing new to report and the investigation is ongoing.
The NTSB should release a report in six months, officials said.

The FAA is on site investigating the wreckage that was moved to a hanger at the airport.

The plane was classified as an experimental aircraft because it was not built commercially. It was based at the airport. Kevin Shook, Translyvania County emergency management coordinator, says the NTSB is not heading the investigation. The FAA is conducting the inquest into how and why the plane crashed.