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Investigation into Plane Crash Begins

By KSPR News

The investigation will continue for several months and we might not know an official cause for a year.
The only people who have an idea of what happened... Were on that plane.

"This is the first airplane incident that I'm aware of in some time, or ever at this jump zone,” says Lt. Brad DeLay of the Lawrence County Sheriffs Department.

For everyone involved and connected to Saturday's incident, even one is too many.
Now, the grieving has begun for friends and family of Marnie Fuller and Jennifer Collins, the two employees of Freefall Express Skydiving who didn't make it out of this plane safely before it crashed.
In a press release from the company, ownership calls the women more than friends, but part of an extended family.

And, this accident has everyone in this small town very shaken. No one with Freefall Express would talk to us on camera. And, their competition across the street refused to say anything either.

Meanwhile, the four girls that did make it out of the plane before it crashed are dealing with different memories, the scary visions of what they experienced.
We spoke shortly Heather Mehl, who was the first girl to jump from the plane.
This was her 31st jump and says she had been on this very airplane a number of times without any problems.
What she remembers about Saturday’s accident is the plane reaching the height needed for their jump, and all of the sudden the plane was just falling.
She says the two women that died were in the back of the plane and as employees, had always been helpful and kind.
But, while we may never know exactly what went wrong, federal investigators will hopefully be able to piece some of this puzzle together.

"There's always the chance they can't determine what caused the accident but hopefully in next couple weeks we have preliminary findings,” says DeLay.

If this investigation follows a similar pattern of past F.A.A. and N.T.S.B investigations, we could have some preliminary findings within a couple of weeks.
However, it should be about six months before we have factual findings and even a year to get a full, probable cause report.

Tuesday, Apr 22 at 9:27 AM Chris Thorton wrote ...

From video story "We are a USPA affiliated dropzone ... and recipient of the Prestigious Chelsey H. Judy National Safety Award 2 years in a row 2006-2007." This award is an 'atta-boy award'. Each DZ can award it to someone each year. It's not a 'Prestigious' award at all. Just a front to 'sell' safety and USPA. BTW Ches Judy was killed in a plane crash. http://uspa.org/publications/SIM/2008SIM/section8.htm#81-3c

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