Senate Majority Leader's Son Injured in Cessna

Senator Bill Frist has had a hell of a week. First; he steps into the leadership of the Senate after Trent Lott gets skewered for a poor choice of words... and then his son gets in a plane crash.

Frist, himself a pilot, was obviously relieved to hear that 19 year old Bill Frist, Jr., escaped a Cessna taxi accident with little more than a cut on the hand.

Taxiing in Nashville, TN, with reports of fog, pilot Lee Barfield, 22, and passenger Henry Barfield, 56, were on board the Cessna 182 along with Frist, when the aircraft departed the runway environment. The aircraft continued down an embankment and flipped over. The accident occurred at the John C. Tune airport in West Nashville.

Various reports suggest the Cessna 182 was taxiing to the runway to take off in fog when the accident occurred at 0745 (CST). The elder Barfield reported that, "At the north end of the taxiway, the plane left the taxiway, went across the shoulder of the taxiway and down a 25-foot embankment." Allison McAfee, a spokeswoman for the Metro Nashville Airport Authority, noted that the incident appeared "to be related to heavy fog... The visibility was extremely low."

Senator Frist and his wife, Karyn, have three sons: William Harrison (19), Jonathan (17), and Bryan (15). Senator Frist is an instrument-rated commercial multiengine pilot, and a partner in a GA aircraft. His recent promotion to the Senate Majority leader's post is seen as quite a positive step for general aviation... (so long as incidents like those noted above are not repeated).

FMI: http://www.senate.gov/~frist