Witness Says Engine Apparently Failed In-Flight

It was about 9:15 Saturday morning when Ernie Brockman heard an unusual sound in the sky outside his house. Brockelman tells the Salina Journal he stepped out and saw a brightly-colored ultralight buzz past at about 350 ft. AGL. Brockman says he watched for a moment, then went back into his kitchen for another cup of coffee.

Suddenly, he says, the humming noise stopped. "I heard the engine try to restart, but it didn't," Brockelman told the Journal. "There was kind of a sputter, then a pow and a thud. You could tell something hit something."

What Brockelman heard was the Mitchell T-10D Flying Wing trainer (file photos) impacting the ground near a pond a few hundred yards from his house, north of Salina (KS). Brockelman tells the Journal he rushed outside again and saw a cloud of grey-white smoke, and something moving on the other side of the pond. It was the ultralight coming to rest.

"I thought I was in the middle of a bad dream," said Brockelman. "I stood there and looked at it, thinking I was going to see a fire or somebody moving."

But there was no fire and, sadly, no one was moving. The two men aboard the aircraft, Terrance F. Thornton, 64 of Culver (KS) and Jerry A. Holsinger, 60, of Petersburg (VA) were pronounced dead at the scene.

Thornton was described as inseperable from the Mitchell Wing T-10 manufacturer. In fact, all training tasks were handed over to Thornton, who operated two of the T-10D trainers - the only two be flying. He also ran a bed and breakfast in Culver, where his guests were often his pupils.

Scene Of Impact

Brockelman says he called 911, then raced to the crash site. The ultralight appeared to have nosed into the bank of a stock pond. The wings seemed to have folded forward from the force of the impact.

The aircraft was eventually hauled away on the back of a tow-truck. "We've got the aircraft on hold," said Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Chris Farthing. He said state officials called the FAA, "but they don't respond to ultralight accidents."

"It looks like the aircraft probably stalled and came down," the trooper told the Journal. "It was moving forward, but it dropped and landed on the front part of the aircraft."

Brockelman was still rattled hours after the accident. "You don't see this kind of stuff every day," he said. "My feelings are for them (the pilots) and their families."

FMI: www.kansashighwaypatrol.org, www.ameriplanes.com