Friday, May 18, 2001

Doctor dies from crash injuries

A Hickory doctor has died and a Tar Heel Baptist layman is expected to be hospitalized for weeks from injuries they received in a plane crash May 12.

Dr. Harry King, a member of a Mennonite church in Hickory, and Claude "Pete" Parrish, a member of Highland Baptist Church in Hickory, were on a medical missions flight when the single-engine plane crashed near New Market, Va.

The men had just flown a 3-year-old heart patient and two relatives to Martinsburg, W.Va. as part of Angel Flight of the Mid-Atlantic. The aviation ministry of N.C. Baptist Men works closely with Angel Flight.

King died May 14 in the University of Virginia Medical Center. Parrish remained hospitalized the week after the crash.

Charles Mullen, the coordinator of Aviation Missions for N.C. Baptist Men, said the plane's engine apparently failed.

"The most that we know is that the engine malfunctioned," he said. "They just couldn't recover from it."

Witnesses at a local golf course reportedly said the engine was not running when they saw the plane go down. The plane clipped the roof of a house, struck a tree and flipped upside down.

Mullen said it appears the men were close to getting the plane on the ground safely. The plane apparently skimmed the house just enough to upset the plane, which then hit in soft dirt causing it to flip.

"They were so close," he said.

The two men were found unconscious and hanging upside down in their seats.

Investigators reportedly believe King was flying the plane because he was in the pilot's seat. Parrish is also a pilot.

King's wife, Rosemary King, told the Hickory Daily Record that the men were in her husband's Cessna 206 that had recently been serviced.

"It had just been totally overhauled," she said. "Totally new. They said it threw a rod. I don't know what happened there ... the engine stopped and they were trying to make an emergency landing. They're both very conservative fliers and both extremely careful."

Mrs. King said the men left the Martinsburg airport at about 7:15 p.m. A few minutes later, they radioed the tower that the engine had failed and they needed to make an emergency landing, she said.

Mullen, N.C. Baptist Men Director Richard Brunson and Robert Schellen- berg, a Rocky Mount doctor who is training to be a pilot, flew to Virginia to see Parrish and his family on May 17. That night, they flew to Hickory to attend a wake for King.

Mullen said Parrish seems to be holding his own even though one leg has been amputated, the other leg is broken, his lungs are collapsed and his eyelids are badly cut.

Parrish can't yet talk but moved around some when his wife told him that Mullen, Brunson and Schellenberg were there. The movement encouraged Mrs. Parrish, Mullen said.

"His wife was very encouraged that we were there," he said. "She is very thankful for the prayers and the calls and cards they've been getting."

Mullen said the doctors seem encouraged by Parrish's progress.

"I think they're real positive that he'll be getting it together and coming on through," Mullen said. "It will just take a while."

Mullen said hundreds of people attended the wake for King.

"He was obviously very well known and well liked," Mullen said.

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