NTSB Report Links Beech 58P Crash Death to Hard Landing

MARIETTA - A fatal plane crash at a runway near a catfish restaurant may have been caused by a hard landing, according to a preliminary report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Bobby Blanchard, 50, died in a March 17 plane crash on a landing strip at McGehee Catfish Restaurant west of Marietta. Blanchard, a Texas businessman and Oklahoma native, was the only passenger killed. The pilot suffered serious injuries, and two passengers also were injured.

Investigators are still trying to determine the exact cause of the plane crash. It could take up to six months to complete the investigation.

After the plane landed, the right wing seemed lower to the ground, according to a safety board investigator's interview with a passenger on the twin-engine Beech 58P airplane.

The men, members of an entrepreneur's organization in Arlington, Texas, were flying to McGehee's from Dallas's Love Field Airport to meet friends for lunch, the passenger said. Pilot Michael Phillips, 34, circled the airstrip twice before attempting to land on the turf runway.

The passenger told investigators that it appeared "grass was being kicked-up from the right propeller," according to the report. Phillips struggled to keep the plane straight on the runway before it began to spin clockwise and then dropped over a large embankment, coming to rest in an upright position, the report says.

Once the plane came to a stop, the area near the right engine was on fire. Phillips and other passengers attempted to wake up Blanchard, sitting in a rear right seat, but he was unresponsive. Phillips and another passenger attempted to enter the burning plane to get Blanchard out, but were unsuccessful, according to the report. The wreckage was found about 43 feet from the runway's center line.

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