Local News
Fatal plane crash probe continues after one year
GREENVILLE AREA — Last Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of the plane crash that killed Hermitage pilot Daniel R. Lloyd II. The cause is still undetermined.
“It’s still an open investigation,” said Todd Gunther, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator from the agency’s eastern office in Ashburn, Va.
A team of NTSB investigators has thoroughly examined the wreckage multiple times and expects to release a report in a month or two, Gunther said Wednesday.
That report will be reviewed by NTSB officials in Washington, D.C., who will have up to 60 days to issue a statement of probable cause, the final report detailing how and why the plane crashed.
The wreckage of the experimental Vans RV-10 plane was also studied by Federal Aviation Administration investigators and has been released to Lloyd’s insurance company, Gunther said.
Lloyd, 37, of 3249 Timber Lane, spent several years building the plane. It crashed on state Route 58, about a mile from Greenville Municipal Airport in Greene Township, from which Lloyd had taken off alone that morning.
One of Lloyd’s relatives told NTSB officials that Lloyd wanted to make sure the plane was functioning properly because he planned to fly his wife and two young children to Boston that afternoon.
Witnesses said the plane seemed to be flying low and the engine didn’t sound right before it crashed and caught fire, parts of it scattering across the road and a cornfield.
Lloyd’s pilot logbook said he had 221.4 hours of flight experience. He was not required to file a flight plan and was the only person at the airport that morning, NTSB officials have said.
- Local News
-
-
Stacey wants to continue fight over razed home
Raymond Stacey has requests pending in three courts as he presses his long-running attempt to prosecute the city of Hermitage and those he believes are responsible for illegally demolishing his parents’ house.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, on April 29 quashed an appeal because Stacey did not file his argument brief and appendix of supporting documents.
-
Burglars strike while residents sleep
Several Shenango Valley residents’ homes were broken into overnight Tuesday and Wednesday while they slept.
Two burglaries in Sharon involved people entering open windows.
-
Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
Hermitage commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday to increase sanitary user fees.
Residents tapped into the Hermitage Municipal Authority lines now pay $95 a quarter. That rate will bump up to $105 a quarter on Jan. 1, under the proposed rate hike.
Two more hikes on Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2013, will result in the rates increasing 50 percent from the current fee. -
Water is on at Forrest Brooke
Water service has been restored at Forrest Brooke Manufactured Home Community after well problems left the 165-unit complex dry Tuesday.
A boil and conserve water advisory has been issued by the DEP and will remain in place until tests confirm the water is safe to drink, Forrest Brooke’s manager Pete Havens said.
-
Storm damages trees, wires
Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
-
City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
-
Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
-
Forrest Brooke copes with water outage
Residents of Forrest Brooke Mobile Home Community in Jefferson and Lackawannock Townships woke up Tuesday morning to find they didn’t have any water.
Managers of the park could not be reached for comment, but residents said they were told they won’t get water service back for at least another month.
-
City facing bleak financial reality
LaVon Saternow has been Farrell’s city manager since 1992. Shortly after she took the job, Sharon Steel, the city’s economic engine, officially closed down.
Since, the city has struggled to remain solvent and Mrs. Saternow said it is facing its worst financial crisis in her tenure.
-
Near-complete addition to let man come home
Although the weather delayed the start of Penny and Paul Strechansky’s construction project by about three weeks, the end of the sawing, hammering and stapling is in sight.
“It should be done by the middle of next week,” Strechansky said of the 15-by-20 foot addition being built onto the back of his garage in Hermitage, which will be the new home of his grandson, David Johnson.
Johnson was critically injured in a car crash June 19, 2009, on what is now Interstate 376 in Lawrence County. The crash rendered Johnson, who just turned 21, blind and brain damaged. He is unable to care for himself.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Stacey wants to continue fight over razed home
