Unhappy Holidays

Ken AshfordLocal InterestLeave a Comment

Anyone who drives up I-77 through Virginia from Winston-Salem (or the other way) knows that awful stretch of mountain road just as you cross the North Carolina-Virginia border.  It's no fun, and when it's foggy… it's downright scary.

There was bad news yesterday:



and then there was this, too:

Two people were aboard the plane that crashed just before 1 p.m. in a grove of tall trees between Kearns Avenue and the private Chatham Farm Road. Both people were killed.

The victims’ names have not been released. The plane was a fixed-wing LanCair LC 42, according to Kathleen Bergen of the Federal Aviation Administration in Atlanta. It was registered to Dennis O’Neal of Blounts Creek, a small town in Beaufort County.


The plane landed within two-thirds of a mile from where children were gathering Easter eggs at Graylyn Inter-national Conference Center.

Lt. Rick Newnum of the Winston-Salem Police Department, as well as neighbors, said the pilot was able to avoid houses and land in a wooded area.