Experienced pilot crashed plane He was talking on cell phone before Cessna hit power line, Interstate 81 near Staunton

BY CALVIN R. TRICE TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Mar 3, 2006

The Augusta County man who died when he crashed a plane while trying to buzz a friend's tractor-trailer had flown professionally for 10 years, his father said yesterday. Click here.

Federal investigators said pilot Benjamin R. Hickin, 30, was talking on his cell phone to the tractor-trailer driver just before the 1961 Cessna 182D crashed onto Interstate 81 north of Staunton the night of Feb. 23.

The plane clipped a power line above the highway, spun to the ground and came to rest in a ditch off the northbound shoulder, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary finding released this week.

Hickin was a certified Federal Aviation Administration mechanic who had flown professionally since graduating from LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, in 1996, said his father, Randy Hickin of Staunton.

Benjamin Hickin was a commercial cargo pilot who reported 4,000 hours of flight experience when he last applied for an FAA medical certificate. The certificate was issued in August, the NTSB preliminary report said.

Randy Hickin called his son a great father and husband.

"His family was his first love. Airplanes was his second," Hickin said.

The night of the wreck, Benjamin Hickin performed mechanical work on the Cessna, a craft owned by friends and based at Eagle's Nest Airport in Waynesboro, authorities and family members said.

Hickin then took the plane airborne. Around 11 p.m., he was in a cell-phone conversation with a tractor-trailer driver who was part owner of the plane, the report said.

Hickin was flying near the northbound truck when he struck power lines north of an interstate rest area. The plane caught fire in the ditch, the report said.

A day after the accident, the cell phone was still functioning on the ground, indicating "one missed call" about 30 yards from the wreckage.

A witness to the accident and subsequent investigations by an FAA inspector and a Cessna company representative indicated that the plane was in good working order before it hit the power lines, authorities said.

Hickin left behind a wife, Marli, and five small children.

"We're going to miss him terribly," Randy Hickin said from his son's home in the Spottswood area of the county south of Staunton.

Submitted on 03/15/2006

Submitted by: Melissa Newtzie
Reference: Richmond Times-Dispatch-3/3/06

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

James said:
Definitely Keep: For Darwin's Eyes
Thanks, Melissa. There's some more info and detail (the cel phone bit is what got me!) on a story we have under consideration. Perhaps Darwin can give it a look!

Sheryl said:
Definitely Keep: For Darwin's Eyes
A lot more information - thanks, Melissa.

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