Cessna Crash
While hiking the the Beartown Wilderness of Tazewell County, Virginia, my Dad located the remains of this crashed Cessna at about 4,000 feet. After doing some research on the Internet and finding the NTSB crash report, I was able to find out quite a bit about the crash itself. The results of my research can be found on this page.
Basic Information:
Location: Eastern Rim of Burke's Garden - Garden Mountain
Date: February 19, 1985
Aircraft Type: Cessna 182R
Registration: N2370E
Aircraft Serial Number: 18268198
Engine: Single Engine - Continential O-470 / 230 h.p.
Owner: Belton Gardiner - Dulles Aviation (not in crash)
Fatalities: 2 brothers:
John Carlton Peebles, 23, of Lexington, Virginia
Christopher Peebles, 18, of Buena Vista, Virginia
Flight Path:
Departed: Manassas, Virginia / (KHEF)
Destination: Shelbyville, Tennessee / (KSYI)
Exact Location of Crash Site:
037° 4'15.75"N
081°23'56.66"W
Elevation: 4,015 feet
Location from Crash Report.com: 37 04N 081 23W
Links to Crash Information:
From NTSB Accident Report
THE PILOT DEPARTED MANASSAS WITHOUT A CURRENT WX BRIEFING OR FILING A FLT PLAN. PLT HAD ALSO LEFT MAPS AND A LIST OF CHECKPOINTS AT HOME. HIS ROUTE OF FLT WAS INTO AN AREA OF LOW CEILINGS AND VISIBILITY. THE ACFT CRASHED INTO A MOUNTAIN AT THE 3850 FT LEVEL. WITNESSES IN THE AREA STATED THAT MOUNTAIN TOPS WERE OBSCURED AND VISIBILITY WAS POOR DUE TO FOG AND DRIZZLE. PLT WAS REPORTEDLY UNDER MENTAL STRESS DUE TO RECENT PERSONAL EVENTS.
From Winchester Star - Newspaper in Winchester, Virginia - February 21, 1985
2 Killed in Crash BURKES GARDEN (AP)
A small airplane that crashed into a snowy mountainside in southwest Virginia, killing two people, probably iced up, a Civil Air Patrol official says. The wreckage of the single-engine Cessna 182, which crashed Monday after taking off from Mananas en route to Shelbyville, Tenn., was spotted by search planes about 1 p.m. Wednesday near the rim of 4,700-foot Beartown Mountain. A ground crew reached the remote site shortly before 6 p.m. State Trooper G.M. Shell identified the victims as John Carlton Peebles, 23, of Lexington, and his brother, Christopher Peebles, 18, of Buena Vista. They were the only occupants of the plane, which was piloted by the older Peebles, said Shell.
David Bernhardt dbernhardt@fgb.com
24-Apr-2013 22:21
Just came across this looking into a 1985 crash of a C182 which was flying from Manassa, VA (KHEF), to Shelbyville, TN (KSYI). A 23 year old flying his 18 year old brother back to school hit Beartown Mountain flying VFR into IMC. It crashed at 3,850' according to the NTSB, but witness accounts had it at 4,700'. This wreckage certainly looks more like a P-51 than a 182.