Another Bristol Aircraft Tragedy

Pilot in helicopter crash identified, presumed dead; search continues

Sporting News

Recovery efforts were suspended Sunday at a Virginia lake with the search for a helicopter pilot who had been missing since his aircraft crashed late Friday.

Yellow bouys mark the site of a helicopter wreck in South Holston Lake. The craft's pilot is missing and presumed dead as recovery efforts continue. (AP Photo)

According to TriCities.com, the search for Bill Starnes was suspended around 7 p.m. Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Gellar said the search will resume Monday at 7 a.m.

Although the chopper was found submerged, Starnes' body still hasn't been located. He was running a 1996 Bell 407 to and from Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday night.

Police and searchers were working with the presumption that Starnes was dead.

Starnes had just left six people at the home of Steve Smith, president and chief executive officer of the Food City market chain, and was alone in the helicopter when it crashed about 10:30 p.m. ET.

The helicopter broke apart and came to rest in South Holston Lake, which is south of Abingdon, Va., and southeast of Bristol, Tenn., in Cherokee National Forest. Bristol Motor Speedway is south of the city and west of the lake.

Food City was sponsor for weekend NASCAR racing at Bristol Motor Speedway.

On Saturday, race fans at Bristol were asked to offer their support.

"As you may have heard, our partners at Food City need our prayers," Bristol Motor Speedway general manager Jerry Caldwell told the crowd before Saturdays race. "They are like family to us. When they hurt, we hurt. So please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you."

In 2011, AINOnline.com identified Starnes as the chief pilot for K-VA-T Food Stores/Food City Aviation. According to a story on the site, Starnes is a former military pilot with more than 26,000 hours of flying time. He would have been in his 40th year as a pilot, and also flew fixed-wing aircraft for the company.

Divers were in the water Saturday, and boats used side-scanning sonar in an attempt to locate the pilot's body.

"Theyll keep searching until they find him," Virginia State Police Sgt. Michael Conroy said told TriCities.com.

People at the Smith residence and camping near the lake heard the helicopter crash and saw it in the water. The aircraft broke up and sank, and plans were being made to remove the wreck from the lake. Pieces that floated to the surface were recovered.

The helicopter was in 20 to 40 feet of water, and activity churned up the bottom to make the water murky.

Virginia State Police members were on the scene, with their divers joined by local sheriff's department divers. Conservation agents also took part in the recovery effort.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

By: Michael Owens

Bristol Herald Courier

Updated: August 27, 2012 - 11:29 AM

The search for missing helicopter pilot Bill Starnes has been a slow and methodical trek through a lake with currents running along two riverbeds and depths ranging from 20 feet to 80 feet.

At times, visibility under the murky waters of South Holston Lake stretches to about a foot. Much of the time, Virginia State Police diver Robert Hamilton said he can see next to nothing.

Once they found the helicopter cab mid-Saturday, divers began following a debris field mapped out with side-scan radar, helicopter flights over the site, and plenty of interviews with witnesses who spotted helicopter parts floating in the lake just moments after the crash.

We couldnt really do anything [for the recovery operation] until we located the aircraft, he said of the recovery mission.

On Sunday, the search continued through the early evening with boats of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries seen circling around the spot of the crash.

Investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board also were there over the weekend.

They wont have a preliminary report on a cause for about six months, Virginia State Police Sgt. Michael. T. Conroy said.

Dive teams with the Virginia State Police and the Sullivan County Sheriffs Office plan to return to the lake around 7 a.m. today to continue the search, Virginia State Police spokesperson Corinne Gellar wrote in a press update.

The 1996 Bell407 crashed late Friday into a section of the lake bounded by the Washington County Park in Virginia on one side and a marina and campgrounds inTennessee on the other.

The wreckage is on a river shelf 42 feet deep and will remain there throughout the recovery operation.

Its kind of like a car crash, Hamilton said. You want to get the people out and then you want to come in with the tow trucks.

The helicopter cab will have to be removed from the lake by the company that owns it, state police said. A barge pushed a crane into the area Saturday afternoon and later moved away from the scene.

Hamilton, an officer based in Tazewell, Va., was among the first divers on the scene late Friday night. Then, it was a rescue mission, he said, with the search focused on where witnesses said they first spotted the wreckage, in the water with skids up.

It was around 10:30 p.m. when nearby campers jumped into their boats and crisscrossed the lake looking for survivors, said camper Lisa Hurst, of Carroll County, Va., with some of them holding aloft cell phones so the glare would shine on helicopter parts.

One boater spotted a duffel bag and a camouflage jacket floating in the water, she said.

The helicopter, partially owned by FoodCitys parent company, K-VA-T Foods, had ferried people to and from Bristol Motor Speedway.

It had just dropped off six people when it crashed into the lake, which fronts a house owned by Steve Smith, FoodCitys president and chief executive officer.

Bill Starnes, Food Citys chief pilot, was the only person on board at the time, state police report.

Boaters also picked up witnesses from Smiths house so they could look for Starnes, too.

Hazel Presley, manager of Lakefront Family Campground, stood on the shore and watched the impromptu search effort.

You could hear them screaming Bill! Bill! she said.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

By: Michael Owens

Bristol Herald Courier

Updated: August 27, 2012 - 4:33 PM

Update at 4:30 p.m. Monday

The body of Bill Starnes was found about 100 yards from the wreckage site. Developing story. More to come in Tuesday's Bristol Herald Courier.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"