Single-Engine Plane Crashes Near Kemp

KEMP—Three members of the Newman family of Fort Worth died Saturday afternoon when their single-engine Piper PA 22 nose-dived into the ground and exploded near Peeltown.

The family had just finished lunch and a visit with Connie Akridge and taken off from the nearby pasture.

"The plane barely got off the ground before it hit the ground and burst into flames," Akridge said.

John Newman, 50, an engineer at Lockheed Aeronautics in Fort Worth, a licensed pilot and plane mechanic, was flying the plane.

Passengers included his wife Cindy, 48, a kindergarten teacher at St. Andrews Catholic School, and their son J.W. Newman III, 19, a sophomore engineering student at University of Texas at Arlington.

Their daughter, Katie, 17, would have been with them, but she was visiting a friend in St. Louis.

The plane crashed on the property of Ray and Susan Harbers, just off Kaufman County Road 4072, approximately two miles south of Peeltown.

"I was in the washroom changing a light bulb when I heard what I thought was a popping sound. I looked out and saw a white plane, nose down sticking straight up. I ran over but before I got to it, there was a muffled explosion and fire spread everywhere," a still-shaken Harbers recalled.

He said the heat was "tremendous," making the plane unapproachable.

"My neighbors and I grabbed our water hoses and fought the fire to keep it away from our homes and buildings," he said.

Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Lt. Tim Caradine said at least five acres burned.

"Fire departments from Kaufman, Scurry, Kemp and Mabank fought the blaze," Caradine said. "The call came in at 3:40 p.m. that a single-engine plane had crashed."

"When the Kemp Fire Department arrived, the aircraft was already consumed, but we kept the fire from burning any structures," Kemp Assistant Fire Chief Miles Hicks said.

"I don’t know how I will make it without my daughter," Jeannene Brown, Cindy’s 70-year-old mother said.

But, she added she had Katie to take care of, and Katie told her grandmother, "they would make it."

A witness, Shelley Bradley, told The Dallas Morning News she was standing near the grass airstrip when the plane dipped its wings and lost airspeed.

"He took off and the wind changed. He should have banked right, but he banked to the left," Bradley said. "He was flapping (dipping) his wings as if he was saying good-bye, but then we realized he was in trouble."

The cause of the crash is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).