OWLS HEAD, Maine — A man driving a pickup truck that collided Friday with a plane carrying three University of Maine students was described Sunday by his boss as “professional and very conscientious.”
Stephen Turner, 62, of Camden, was driving his 1994 GMC truck across a runway at Knox County Regional Airport in Owls Head at around 4:45 p.m. Friday when it collided with a four-seat, single-engine Cessna 172 that was taking off, according to officials. The plane managed to become airborne but crashed soon after takeoff, killing all three people on board, investigators have said.
Citing information provided by members of the fraternal organization Lambda Chi Alpha, UMaine officials have indicated that the three crash victims are pilot William “BJ” Hannigan, 24, of South Portland, and passengers David Cheney, 22, of Beverly, Mass., and Marcelo Rugini, 24, of Muliterno, Brazil. All three were students at UMaine and members of the fraternity.
A woman who answered the phone Sunday morning at Turner’s home in Camden, when asked if Turner was available, said, “He’s not here,” and quickly hung up the phone.
Turner is a pilot and instructor with Penobscot Island Air, which is based at the Owls Head airport and provides flights to nearly a dozen coastal and island communities in eastern Maine.
Kevin Waters, owner and director of operations for the company, said Sunday that Turner is a “passionate” and committed professional.
“You’re not going to find a finer guy,” Waters said. “He cares tremendously [about what happened Friday]. He’s a great person.”
Waters said he was at the airport when the plane crashed and saw it become airborne. He said it was twilight, and that the runway lights were on, but that he could see the plane’s outline low against the western sky.
“You still had a western glow, sunset-wise,” Waters said.
Waters said he saw the plane disappear over the trees past the western end of the runway and figured it must have crashed. He dialed 911 right away, he said, but did not find out until later that the plane had collided on the runway with Turner’s truck.
Waters said he did not know anything about the collision or what may have contributed to it. The only ones who do know, he added, are Turner and the three UMaine students.
“Everything happened fairly quickly,” he said. “The whole thing is extremely tragic.”
In a prepared statement released Saturday, the Knox County Sheriff’s Department indicated that just before the runway collision, Turner assisted with putting a plane away in a hangar near the airport terminal.
“This was routine practice that occurs daily,” police wrote in the statement.
Waters said he did not know which plane Turner had assisted with putting away and was not sure whether it was a Penobscot Air plane or a different aircraft that Turner had been handling.
Why the Cessna that was carrying Hannigan, Cheney and Rugini landed at Knox County Regional Airport is not clear. The plane had taken off from Bangor International Airport earlier in the day, on what the students’ fraternity brothers have described as a simple joy ride, and had flown over Spear’s Vegetable Farm in Nobleboro, where Rugini had lived and worked, before heading to Owls Head. The three men were expected to fly back to BIA later in the day.
An employee with Downeast Air, the fixed-base operator at the Owls Head airport, said Sunday that as far as he knows, the UMaine students did not buy fuel after touching down in Knox County. He said he was not at the airport when the UMaine students passed through Friday afternoon, but added that a Downeast Air official told him company employees did not interact with the students. The other official was not at the airport Sunday.
“They didn’t come through us at all,” Downeast Air employee Shane Burns said.
Burns said the lack of contact is not unusual. Private planes often land at the airport and then take off again without seeking out the company’s services, he said.
Investigators have not confirmed the identities of the three crash victims, saying that they will release the names of the deceased after the State Medical Examiner’s Office completes autopsies of the victims, which is expected to happen later this week.
The collision and ensuing plane crash remains under investigation by the Knox County Sheriff’s Department, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Follow BDN reporter Bill Trotter on Twitter at @billtrotter.
So he is a “nice” person. What the hell does that have to do with
anything. Most people are nice. Doesn’t mean he couldn’t make a mistake
Those three dead people were probably nice too.
i’m not very nice
Me either, and in my experience most people do not have friends who will vouch for them after a tragedy.
Yes, he probably is a nice person. All that aside, there is NO EXCUSE for a runway incursion. As a pilot and Supervisor of Flying in the Air Force, we are trained to never go on an active runway without clearance, and if operating at an uncontrolled field like he was, listening CAREFULLY to the common frequency and simply being careful to LOOK before crossing an active runway. This is cut and dry negligence on his part and it cost the lives of three young men.
You weren’t there! Don’t you think it unfair to make that assumption when you don’t have all the facts? I don’t give a rat’s butt if you are a flyboy! I wouldn’t ride with you.
Too bad you could learn a lot about flying from Rich. He was also a former Wing flying safety officer….. This tragedy happened on a RUNWAY (for airplanes) not a FREEWAY or HIGHWAY (for trucks).
At an uncontrolled field the pilot is not required to make a radio call or even have one installed and does not have to land in to the wind if he so desires, i.e. crosswind training etc.
this forum is for factless assumptions,why be suprised?
Why so defensive? There is no need for your type of rudeness!
This is a short runway, uncontrolled field as you said. I have seen no indication that the pilot radioed in before takeoff or did a pre-flight check.
HUH? So you think the pilot was at fault? Why do you think he did or didn’t do a “pre-flight” check. What do you think a pre-flight is for? A pre-flight check will not prevent someone driving a pickup truck onto the runway. This is NOT pilot error, the truck shouldn’t have been there. Also, the shortest runway at Knox is 4,000 long–that’s about 3 times as much length for take-off than a Cessna 172 needs.
Its an advisory call at an uncontrolled field, the ultimate responsibility lies with the vehicle on the ground.
As an Air Force pilot, when was the last time that you flew into an uncontrolled airport? Ever? A lot happens outside of the world of military aviation and at small airfields around the country that you would never see. There is a real world out there that doesn’t involve the structure of the Air Force. Tragedy yes, cut and dry negligence, maybe/probably not.
Nice people sometimes have to spend a lot of time in jail! You can still be nice there! Rah rah accountability!
Waters said ” what may have contributed to it” , truck on runway just might be the cause. It is the responsibility of a vehicle on an active runway to make sure that it was safe for him to be there. Tragic for all involved.
Good to know that you are an expert of right of ways. Is it not the pilot’s responsibility to make sure the runway is clear? I think all should wait and see who was at fault. Not fair to all involved to judge until the facts are in.
The problem is there is only one side of the story that will be told now.
This man should just state the truth about what happened and do it soon!
The runway was likely clear when the pilot started his take-off roll. The truck would not have been parked there. When the plane rotates, or takes off, the cockpit visibility is limited because of the nose-up attitude. That was the critical point because the plane did get airborne. Well meaning people seem to think the pilot was at fault. Bottom line–a truck was on the runway when it shouldn’t have been.
I never implied that anyone was at fault. I am old enough and have been around enough to know it is better to leave things like this to the people who are the investigators. Anything else is just speculation and does no good to anyone. There are at least 4 people involved in this. The driver of the truck and the 3 dead students. How would you like to be that driver and read this/ How would you like to be a close relative of one of the dead and read this? None of us were there and none of us can really say what happened. All we can do is make the survivors feel worse. Better to say nothing at all.
I think that since I have been a pilot, i do have some knowledge. Thank You
Yeah, so was the pilot. Completing his master’s at Umaine, just got a pilot slot with Guard.
Being a “nice” person is obviously NOT the issue. Does anyone suggest that this tragedy did not involve decent people? Should the investigation determine that the truck driver was at fault, will the defense use Turner’s being “nice”? I doubt it. Who would?
They allow people to DRIVE ACROSS THE RUNWAY at this airport??? That seems a bit far fetched to me. That would be an accident waiting to happen….and it did.
Under certain conditions, authorized vehicles are allowed to cross runways at Kennedy, Logan and Newark.
Radioing that you are going to cross a runway where a plane is already in takeoff doesn’t seem like it should absolve you from responsibility.
To all appearances, the driver of the truck got careless, and drove onto a runway where a plane was already accelerating for takeoff. If he did anything different, he should clearly state it.
A plane taking off on a runway has the right of way.
Unfortunately, as with driving, right of way doesn’t protect you from what others might choose to do.
I would say that responsibility could be shared in this. If the pilot didn’t report he was taking off and the driver of the truck didn’t report he was driving across the runway…people always laugh at me because I take an extra few seconds to double check something…but that extra few seconds can as in this case, be the difference between life and death…
I hope he has lots of insurance, he’s going to need it!
Didn’t we just see something like this on tv last week?
The reporter should have asked Waters if he noticed any lights on that airplane. At 4:45 PM I think the plane would have to have lights on to be seen in time by anyone crossing the runway.
A plane has a “headlight”, plus other lights–the pilot would need a light to taxi and roll down the runway. The ONLY problem here is that the truck was on the runway.
It’s the marker lights that should always be on when the aircraft is on taxiways and runways. Some of those landing lights could make it harder to see up ahead during takeoff. What the pilot “needs” depends somewhat on the airport lighting.
Alcohol?
Seems pointless to debate this before the investigation is complete.
Don’t you have a bunch of evil freaks with whom to convene in Vegas?
not enough…all of you are welcome here as long as you loathe the bangor daily
So one story says the plane struck the truck, and this one claims the truck struck the plane.
Guess I’ll wait till someone who knows what happened writes a story… although that one probably won’t be in the BDN.
This is a good article to block all comments on. Am sure Mr. Turner and others feel bad enough already. :(
3 charges of Manslaughter coming?
Can ANYONE explain why Turner was driving a truck across the runway?
Well, that’s nice and all, but whether he’s a “great person” isn’t really at issue here. There’s no law of physics says a great person can’t have zigged when he should’ve zagged. That’s why we rely on accident investigators in cases like this and not, well, character witnesses.