Six Dead On Way Home From NASCAR Event

A small Illinois town is in mourning this weekend after a Piper Saratoga (file photo of type, below) went down, carrying six of its sons and daughters. For Carlock (IL), the deaths of the men and women aboard that aircraft has hit especially hard.

The three couples were on their way home from Darlington (SC), where they had attended a NASCAR race. The victims were identified as Don Maurer Jr., 40, and his wife, Amy, 38, of Carlock; Amy's brother, Brad Webb, 34, and his girlfriend, Erica Edgington, 27, also of Carlock; and the pilot, Curt Piercy, 41, and his wife, Linda, 42, of Normal. The aircraft impacted Little Black Mountain near Highsplint in Harlan County (KY), about two hours after taking off from Darlington.

Carlock is a town of fewer than 500 people. "Little Donnie" Maurer is especially missed at the Country Side Restaurant, where he stopped by as many as six times a day in the process of helping stranded motorists under his towing company banner.

"It's just really hard to deal with [their deaths]," said Jim Fogle, co-owner of the restaurant, who knew all three couples. "It wouldn't have been the same if we had lost one of them, but to lose all of them ... it will never be the same."

The booths of the restaurant are now garnished with yellow ribbons, in memory of the six. A sign at the local elementary school said simply, "Pray and hope." But that was before the wreckage -- and the bodies -- were found.

Maurer was known as the man who could get you out of a jam if your car had broken down. An employee at the local BP station, Marian Lawton, said she could always rely on Maurer to come help her if she had a flat tire or if she ran out of gas. "You wouldn't even have to ask and he would help you," she said.

Pilot Curt Piercy was also a race car driver, having started out in demolition derbies and graduated to ARCA stock cars. But when it came to airplanes, "He was all business when he was in that plane flying," his uncle Dick Piercy said. "He always said if something went wrong he'd find an Interstate to land on. It must have been a mechanical failure or ice and snow going over that mountain because he would have done everything to keep that plane up."

The NTSB is now investigating the accident.

The bodies were recovered from the crash site late Thursday evening. They're now being examined by state officials in Kentucky before they'll be returned to Carlock.

FAA Preliminary Accident Report

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 8173U        Make/Model: PA32      Description: PA-32 Cherokee Six, Six, Saratoga, Turbo
  Date: 03/22/2004     Time:     

  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: Fatal     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Destroyed

LOCATION
  City: HARLAN                      State: KY   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  ACFT CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, SIX PERSONS ON BOARD WERE FATALLY
  INJURED, THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED, THE ACFT WAS A SUBJECT OF AND ALERT NOTICE
  ISSUED 3/22/04, HARLAN, KY

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   6
                 # Crew:   1     Fat:   1     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   5      Fat:   5     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:           Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: UNK                                                                        
                                                                                    
                                                        

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Unknown      Phase: Unknown      Operation: General Aviation

  Departed: DARLINGTON, SC              Dep Date: 03/22/2004   Dep. Time: 0001
  Destination: BLOOMINGTON, IL          Flt Plan: VFR          Wx Briefing: Y
  Last Radio Cont: UNK
  Last Clearance: UNK

  FAA FSDO: LOUISVILLE, KY  (SO01)                Entry date: 03/25/2004

FMI: www.ntsb.gov