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Airport crash kills pilot, rider
Florida surgeon came here on business with 3
passengers
By Jane Roberts
robertsj@gomemphis.com
July 3, 2003
A world-renowned Florida neurosurgeon died
Wednesday morning when the twin-engine plane he was piloting crashed at
Memphis International Airport.
Dr. David W. Cahill of Tampa and one of his three passengers, John Murphy
of Pensacola, were killed when the plane flipped over while landing shortly
after 10 a.m.
Passengers Ed Brown and Chip Lomell, both of Tampa, were taken to the
Regional Medical Center at Memphis. Brown and Lomell were in critical
condition late Wednesday.
Cahill, 51, was headed to Memphis to meet with engineers of Medtronic
Sofamor Danek, a medical device manufacturer.
"He was going to consult about new therapeutic approaches to treat spinal
disorders," Jessica Stoltenberg, a spokesman for the Minneapolis-based
Medtronic, told The Associated Press.
All three passengers are employees of Medtronic Sofamor Danek.
Cahill, founder and chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at
the University of South Florida, had been flying solo since he was a
teenager, according to a biography on the Web site for the Society of
Neurological Surgeons.
"He was quite a fine pilot," said Dr. Daniel P. Greenwald, who was a
co-owner of the six-seater Beechcraft with Cahill.
Greenwald, a Tampa plastic surgeon, said his friend was certified to fly
instrument in single- and double-engine planes. The two had bought and sold
and flown planes together for several years.
"We flew together last night, and everything was OK," Greenwald said. "He
was very careful to fly frequently and competently. He always stayed
current."
Cahill took off from Peter O. Knight airport in Tampa at 6:30 a.m. The
plane, a Beech 58P, was registered to Greenwald and Wind Dancer DSC, a
company Cahill owned.
The plane flipped and ended upside down in the grass off runway 36-Right
as it was landing, said Larry Cox, president of Memphis-Shelby County
Airport Authority.
No distress call was received from the plane, and the runway was clear.
Witnesses, including a military pilot taxiing for takeoff at the time of
the crash, said the plane's nose pitched up before the plane could touch
down.
"It probably stalled then, before it rolled over on its back," Cox said.
"That eliminates a hard landing," he said, though any number of
circumstances could have caused the plane to flip, including that it caught
the wingtip vortices of a large plane taking off or landing at the same
time.
"We have no indication that this is the case," Cox said.
The National Transportation Safety Board will start investigating today.
Though there have been crashes of small planes heading to Memphis in
recent memory, this is the first time in more than 30 years that a crash has
occurred within the airport gates, Cox said.
Memphis firefighters responded with 11 pieces of equipment, including
three air crash trucks from the airport fire station.
"There was no fire, but we laid down a blanket of foam because there was
a fuel leak," said Division Chief Donald Kuhn.
Foam keeps the vapors from exploding in a flash fire, he said.
Runways 36-Center and 36-Right were closed for four hours, causing some
delays for Northwest Airlines and FedEx, Cox said.
The last fire crew left the scene shortly before 2 p.m., and both runways
reopened at 2:15 p.m.
- Jane Roberts: 529-2512 |
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