Gillsburg Plane Crash Kills Six,Hurts 20 Including Rock SingersA twin-engine airplane, apparently out of fuel, crashed before 7p.m. Thursday in a wooded area of Amite County near Gillsburg. Six persons including the lead singer of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd were killedand 20 were injured. The propeller-driven Convair 240 skidded across tree tops for about 100 yards, then slammed into a swampy area and split open about eight miles short of McComb Airport after reporting it was having fuel trouble or was running low on fuel", an Air Traffic Controller reported. The dead included lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and vocalist Cassie Gaines, Gaines sister, medical authorities said. Pilot Walter Wiley McCreary and co-pilot William John Gray, both of Dallas Texas, and Dean Kilpatrick, assistant road manager for the group, also died officials said. Six other members of the hard rock band were injured, two hurt critically and four hospitalized in stable condition. The injured, some of them also in critical condition, included members of the group's road crew and a cameraman, said officials of Southwest Mississippi Medical Center. The chartered plane owned by L&J Co. of Addison Texas, came down on its nose southwest of McComb, twisting the cockpit to the left, and threw seven or eight persons to the ground when it split open at about the middle of the fuselage, it was believed. The impact, which triggered no fire, tossed other passengers toward the front of the aircraft. "They were all in front of the plane and they were all shouting, get me out, get me, get me." said Constable Gerrald Wall. "We were actually standing on people to get others out". Johnny Mote, who lives near the crash site close to the Mississippi-Louisiana border, said the plane "sounded like a car skidding in gravel" as it clipped the trees. "When it hit the ground it was a deep rumble, like it was underground. It sounded like wrinkling metal" he said. The group was en route from a Wednesday night performance in Greenville South Carolina to a Friday night concert before an expected crowd of 10,000 persons at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. The plane had passed McComb when it reported that it was having fuel trouble, and was told by the Houston Texas flight center to turn around and land at McComb, said Everett Fairly, an air traffic controller at McComb. "I tried to call them, but we couldn't raise them, and Houston reported it had lost radar and radio contact", Fairly said. A spokesman for the Federal Administration in Atlanta GA said the pilot had reported being low on fuel. Thick undergrowth hampered rescue operations and some emergency vehicles became stuck in the mud when they tried to drive through the woods to get close to the aircraft. Rescue crews were also hindered by a 20-foot wide, waist deep creek they had to cross to reach the plane. Pickup trucks and vans were used along with ambulances to carry the dead and injured to hospitals. A Southwest Medical Center spokesman said identification of the victims were complicated because passengers were apparently playing poker before the plane went down and had there wallets and identification papers out. Fairly said a small jet was landing at McComb at the time the plane was reported in difficulty and ask the jet pilot to fly over the area. "But it was very dark and the pilot said he could see nothing from the air," Fairly said. The plane came down near open pasture land, tearing off one of the wings and twisting the other. Recuers had to rip open the nose to get to victims. Two bulldozers were used to cut a path through the woods and brush from nearby Mississippi 568. Donald Chase who lives about five miles from the area, said he heard "that the plane was having engine trouble because it was sputtering." Mote said he was putting some hay out when three bloody survivors who had made their way through the woods called him for help. "One of them was hugging me around the neck and telling me, "We got to get them out." Mote estimated it took up to 3 1/2 hours to remove all the bodies from the plane. Michael White who lives in Gillsburg, said he and his family heard the engines of the airplane sputtering about 6:45pm. "I guess it crashed about 6:47pm" he said, but were unable to find the plane."I called the airport about 7:00pm," he said, but was told there was no plane in the area.The Pike County Civil Defense said the crash was reported to its office shortly before 7pm.
