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By JAY HAMBURG
Staff Writer
 

Pilot still in hospital, suffering from burns

ROCKVALE COMMUNITY — A 9-year-old boy died of burns and injuries yesterday, two days after his little sister was killed when the plane they were riding in with a neighbor crashed near their homes.

Tyler Craighead died in Vanderbilt University Medical Center. His 5-year-old sister, Shelby, was pronounced dead Sunday at the site of the crash.

The tragedy left the little Rutherford County community of Rockvale shaken.

The plane hit a wooded area that neighbors estimate was about a half-mile from the children's home and about the same distance to the private airstrip where the single-engine aircraft took off Sunday afternoon.

The pilot, Robert Gibson, who owns the little airstrip in Rockvale, remained at Vanderbilt, suffering from burns, said detective Ron Killings of the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department.

''The whole (Gibson) family feels for that family,'' said Robert Reid, a neighbor to the pilot and to the children's parents, Scott and Kim Craighead. ''You have to feel for the family. Where are their children? They're not here anymore.''

Reid, who spoke with Gibson at the crash site, said the pilot asked him to help the two children before he was taken by LifeFlight helicopter to Vanderbilt. ''He was looking around like he was looking for the children,'' Reid said.

Reid, who has spoken with the pilot's son, said the family was devastated. Along with some other neighbors, Reid is trying to plan a fund-raiser for the victims' families.

Rockvale, southwest of Murfreesboro, is a small community of curving two-lane roads that pass by hay fields, homes and thickly wooded areas. Many of the residents shop at a crossroads store called Bojacks Country Market.

Carolyn Leathers, who works in the market, said she often saw the children's father, Scott, in the store with one or both of his children.

She said both of the children were always well behaved. ''The little boy went to school with my grandson,'' Leathers said. ''And the girl, she's real pretty. She has long blond hair. It's just terrible.''

Because both families have remained in seclusion and mourning over the accident, neighbors did not know yesterday how the children came to take a ride in Gibson's plane. But Leathers and Reid said that many neighbors had taken rides with the pilots who use the private airstrip.

Reid said he believes that Gibson is a careful pilot. He could hear Gibson putting the plane's engine through its checkout procedure Sunday before the flight began.

''I'd let my grandkids go up with him,'' Reid said. ''We were talking about it.'' Other relatives also wanted to catch a ride with the pilots, Reid said.

He described the private airfield, which he said is in a field behind his house, as an unpretentious place with a couple of small hangars and two intersecting grass strips for takeoffs and landings.

Sometimes his miniature horses wander onto the airstrip. And occasionally, the pilots ''have to buzz the runway to get the deer off it.''

Reid said the airfield was there 10 years ago when he moved into the area, and most residents in the sparsely populated community either think it's a nice feature or don't pay it any attention. On a busy day, he said, perhaps six small planes might land. Some days none arrive.

He said neighbors were crying together after the crash Sunday, and he expects it will happen again as word of the second death spreads.

Reid said of the pilot Gibson: ''He won't ever get over it.''

Jay Hamburg is a reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at jhamburg@tennessean.com or 726-8968.