by The Associated Press
TYNER, N.C. (AP) - A sheriff’s deputy and two police officers from North Carolina were killed Wednesday when the single-engine plane they were using to search for marijuana plants crashed.
Witnesses said they heard the engine of the Cessna 172-S sputter and cut out just before it crashed in a cotton field around 3:30 p.m., Chowan County Sheriff Fred Spruill said.
There was no communication from the pilot that the plane was in trouble, he said.
“I don’t think they had time to say anything,” Spruill said.
The plane had made a flight earlier in the day without incident. It had been aloft approximately an hour in its second flight when its engine suddenly sputtered and the aircraft fell to the ground, Spruill said.
The deputy killed in the crash, Richard Edward Ashley Jr., 34, joined the Chowan County Sheriff’s office 15 months ago and had volunteered to fly with the mission Tuesday.
The other men killed were identified as Sgt. Anthony Scott Futrell of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and Maj. Robert C. Kennedy of the Boone Police Department.
Futrell was the plane’s pilot, while Kennedy was the flight’s trained spotter for marijuana plants, Spruill said. It was Ashley’s job to communicate with law enforcement officials on the ground the locations of any drugs found.
The flights were part of a long-standing statewide drug eradication program which uses helicopters and small aircraft from the National Guard for surveillance flights.
Witnesses said the plane circled the area for much of the afternoon, flying slowly over fields.
Cheryl Jordan said the plane made her uneasy as it circled the area over her house at low altitudes. The plane appeared to be flying normally, but it suddenly plummeted to the ground as it began a turn, Jordan said.
“There was no explosion or nothing,” she said. “It just went ‘thump.”’
Spruill said Ashley’s death cut short a promising law enforcement career in Chowan’s 16-officer department.
“We’re a very small agency,” Spruill said. “We’re a family.”