Probe Begins in Midair Crash That Left Army Pilot Dead
Two investigation teams arrived in southern Arizona Saturday to probe a midair collision between an Army airplane and a civilian aircraft that killed a military pilot.
Investigators from the Aviation Safety Center at Ft. Rucker, Ala., and the National Transportation Safety Board began scouring the wreckage at the crash site in Marana, Ariz., where Chief Warrant Officer Lowell K. Timmons, 45, was killed Friday, said Julia Bobick, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command in Ft. Knox, Ky.
The airplane used by the Army’s Golden Knights skydiving team crashed in a dry riverbed one mile north of the Marana Airport after colliding with a Cessna carrying five civilians. Four Golden Knights parachutists jumped from the Porter turboprop plane before the collision.
The pilot of the civilian aircraft, which took off from the Marana Skydiving Center, about 20 miles north of Tucson, landed the plane with a damaged wing, said Officer Tim Brunenkant, a Marana police spokesman.
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