The Randolph Leader: News

An investigation into the crash of a small plane near Woodland in December reveals that lack of sleep could have played a significant role in the crash.

Two people were killed on the night of Dec. 7 when a Cessna R182 crashed behind a residence at 540 County Rd. 112, west of Bethel East Baptist Church. The crash was reported at 9:17 p.m. and the wreckage was found about 10:37 p.m.

The plane was heading back to Executive Flight Center in Meridianville near Huntsville from Orlando Executive Airport.

The flight instructor and pilot of the plane was Emily Dover Clark, 28, of Madison, who worked at ACRO Air and Executive Flight Center.

Her student pilot was Dr. James Michael "Jim" Brown, 36, of Huntsville, a chiropractor at Rocket City Chiropractic.

According to the report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and investigator in charge Carrol A. Smith, Clark went to bed about 7:30 p.m. and got up about 12:45 a.m. to make the trip. After driving Brown from the airport to a conference, she tried to sleep for a couple of hours in the crew room of the airport in a lounging chair. At the time of the accident, she had been awake for about 20.5 hours.

The report states that Brown chose not to fly a commercial airline to the conference because he wanted to build some flight time on the way and get back to be with his children. He had gone to bed around 8:45 p.m. and got up at 1:30 a.m. for the airport. At the time of the accident, he had been awake about 20 hours.

Bethel East Volunteer Fire Department responded when the plane collided with trees and the ground, becoming buried about 4 feet into the ground. There was no evidence of a pre-crash mechanical failure.