SW Virginia Airplane Crash Sites

KEN Hale posed to my Pbase site on the crashed P-51:

Ken Hale

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20-Sep-2016 21:36

The Clinch Mountains are famous for collecting planes. I was the Wildlife Manager for Clinch Mountain and Hidden Valley WMA's from 1980-1986. There are three planes on Beartown Mountain. One is an old military style frame plane from the 40's 50's. One is a Cessna 172 which appears to be the above photos. The other is the FB-111 described above. All happened before my time there.

Above Laurel Bed Lake is the Cheyenne. There were three people in the plane, and it was on approach to Richlands in dense fog. Ended up in a beaver pond. I was there and helped remove the bodies.

Hidden Valley has collected two planes. One was a Cessna 172 just out from the top of the ridge beyond the radio towers. Two were killed in that plane. I helped with that one.

The other was a Grumman that went into the cliff bands near the same place and burned. I had just left the Game Commission so it would have been in the fall of 1986.

Most of the FB-111 was buried. The 172 on Beartown was mostly there, but the engine had been recovered. The 172 on Hidden Valley was recovered. The insurance company flew in personnel to recover as much of the Cheyenne as they could. Guy camped there several days and they flew out the parts with a helicopter, the pained the remains green with the yellow X.