wfn.org | Plane Crashes into Parsonage

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3355 notes).

Note 3355 by UMNS on Jan. 3, 1997 at 15:42 Eastern (5051 characters).

SEARCH:   Plane, crash, parsonage, Florence, United Methodist
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Joretta Purdue                           1(10-71B){3355}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722            Jan. 3, 1997

EDITORS NOTE: A photo to accompany this story is to come.

Small plane crash-lands
in parsonage guest bed

                 by United Methodist News Service

     When an airplane crashed into the parsonage of Central United
Methodist Church, Florence, S.C., church members rallied to help
the victims.
     Fortunately, no one was in the parsonage when the engine and
cockpit of the four-passenger Piper Cherokee landed in the bed of
a second-floor guest room mid-afternoon on New Year's Day.
     Next door, 12-year-old Liza Lucas was working on a science
project on her computer when the crash occurred. She looked out a
window to see parts of the plane sticking out of the parsonage.
     Liza immediately called 911 while her mother, Gaye, retrieved
a key to the parsonage and rushed into the house to help the
survivors, assisted by another neighbor and a policeman.
     When the emergency medical crew arrived minutes later, said
the Rev. J. Chad Davis, they found one of the plane's occupants
stretched out on the couch, one sitting in a chair, one resting on
the floor and only the most severely injured passenger awaiting
medical help to extract her from the wreckage.
     Davis sees the hand of God in the circumstances. During
Christmas week, his daughter, son-in-law and grandson had been
using the bedroom where the plane came to rest, but they had left
during the weekend.
     "If it had to come down, that was the place for it to come
down, so we are tremendously grateful people," he said, noting
that houses on both sides of the parsonage were occupied by
families at the time of the crash.
     Davis was told that after the plane's engine failed it was on
a path that would have taken it into the den of one of those
houses where family members were watching television, but the left
wing hit a tree, slowing the plane and turning it into the empty
parsonage.
     Davis and his wife, Faye, a junior high school math teacher,
had left Florence Jan. 30 for a short vacation at their mountain
cabin -- which does not have a telephone -- in a far corner of
South Carolina. 
     After the crash, the Rev. Steve Brown, associate minister at
Central Church, left an emergency message at Asbury Hills United
Methodist Camp near their cabin and the Davises soon began the
four-hour drive back to Florence.
     "By the time I got home, the prayer chain in the church was
already at work praying for the survivors," Davis said. In an
interview by television reporters, he asked the town to join in
the prayers. 
     At the hospital later, one of the two pilots that had been in
the plane told Davis that knowing the town was praying for his
survival was "one of the most heartening things" that had happened
to him.
     The church also had delivered flowers to the hospitalized
crash victims, Davis said, and he was able to visit with some of
those who had been on board.
     Three of the plane's occupants were admitted to hospitals in
critical condition and the other was kept for observation. But 36
hours later, even the condition of the most critically injured --
Elisabeth De'Campes of Versailles, France, had been upgraded, and
all four were expected to survive, Davis noted. The other three
were from Pennsylvania. They were enroute from Miami to Florence
when the crash occurred.
     The Lucas family, who had been instrumental in the rescue, as
well as one of the paramedics that gave aid are members of Central
United Methodist Church, a congregation of approximately 1,900
people, Davis said.
     Other members of the church involved in managing the crisis
and its aftermath were Harvey Senseney, director of the Florence
Regional Airport, and Chief of Police Ralph Porter.
     The Davises were barred from using their home for only two
nights until the Federal Aviation Administration arrived to
investigate, the wreckage was removed and the upstairs secured
against the elements. 
     Less than 48 hours after the plane crashed into the
parsonage, Davis and his wife were back in the downstairs rooms,
and building contractors were waiting for a go-ahead from
insurance adjusters to repair the second floor.
     "It's beautiful to see the way the community has responded,"
commented Davis, who has been in the ministry for 40 years. 
     He has been kidded by several members of the congregation
about overworking his guardian angel, a reference to a sermon he
preached shortly after having an emergency heart transplant 3 1/2
years earlier. Davis said he told the congregation then that "to
be an angel is to be one God puts there when he needs you" and "we
can all be angels." 
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