Air Guard Unit Grounds Craft After Crash

The Kentucky Air National Guard grounded all its aircraft Friday until investigators can determine what caused one of the unit’s military transports to plummet into a motel and restaurant complex here, killing 16 people.

“We’re extremely sorry this had to happen,” said Robert Dezarn, adjutant general of the Kentucky Guard, in apologizing for Thursday’s crash of the Louisville, Ky.-based C-130 cargo plane as it practiced takeoffs and landings at the Evansville Regional Airport.

As military specialists combed the charred and twisted wreckage for clues to the accident, officials cautioned that it could take a long time to unravel the mystery.

“We don’t expect any kind of ‘eureka’ experience,” said Lt. Col. Dave Moremen, a Kentucky Guard official and one of the investigators. “This is a methodical, painstaking, fact-finding experience, and it’ll be a while putting the pieces together.”

Several eyewitnesses said the four-engine turboprop aircraft appeared to suddenly lose power during a takeoff.

The death toll included all five of the plane’s crew members as well as a waitress and dishwasher at JoJo’s coffee shop. It also included a group in the adjacent Drury Inn, where the inferno devoured a fourth-floor conference room.

A seminar was being held in room 416 for employees of Evansville-based Plumbing & Industrial Supply Co. Killed were nine men, ages 22 to 51, including the vice president of the company, John Stallings Jr., 41.

Most of the victims were still in their seats at a conference table when their bodies were recovered, said Police Chief Art K. Gann, an indication that the blaze swept through so quickly that they had no time to move.

He said three other bodies were found in an adjacent bathroom, perhaps blown there by the force of the flames as they blasted through. Three other seminar participants were injured but survived the ordeal, perhaps because they were blown into the hallway outside the conference room, Gann said.

Coroner Charlie Althaus said smoke inhalation, not the fire, killed the meeting participants.