Plane crashes gently in Brasstown

Plane crashes gently in Brasstown

All three survivors walk away

By Frank Bradley

Sentinel writer

Somebody must have forgotten to check the gas gauge because the airplane tank was empty when FAA inspectors checked the wreckage Sunday morning after the crash.

Dean Gillette was mowing his grass when he saw the plane in trouble flying very low.

“It couldn’t have been going any faster than 40 or 45 miles an hour,” he said. “I watched it while one of its wings clipped a treetop and then fell into a hayfield across the street from where I was mowing.”

Gillette said he rushed to the site to see what he could do to help. He assisted two of the passengers out of the belly of the plane. Another one made it out on his own.

Clay County Sheriff Vic Davis said pilot Gary Schmitt told him that he was planning on landing the plane at a private airfield (Vic Payne’s place) off Settawig Road. The passengers, Tony and Janet Schuler, who were from Franklin, North Carolina, were taken out by helicopter to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga.

Clay County Deputies and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol shared the responsibilities of securing the crash scene until the FAA investigators arrived from Atlanta.

Davis said he had received reports that the pilot had been hurt worse, but that all three were recovering and due to be released last Monday.

“They were very lucky,” he said.